Martyrs are needed to create incidents. Incidents are needed to create revolutions. Revolutions are needed to create progress.

When you get to mixing sex and religion, it will make anybody crazy.

The Harlem of my books was never meant to be real; I never called it real; I just wanted to take it away from the white man if only in my books.

Growth is the surviving influence in all our lives. The tree will send up its trunk in thick profusion from land burned black by atom bombs. Children will grow from poverty and filth and oppression and develop honor, integrity, contribute to all mankind.

Martyrs are needed to create incidents. Incidents are needed to create revolutions. Revolutions are needed to create progress.

American violence is public life, it's a public way of life, it became a form, a detective story form. So I should think that any number of black writers should go into the detective story form.

There is an indomitable quality within the human spirit that cannot be destroyed; a face deep within the human personality that is impregnable to all assaults.