Now, about that mulatto teacher and me. There was no love there for each other. There was not even respect. We were enemies if anything. He hated me, and I knew it, and he knew I knew it. I didn't like him, but I needed him, needed him to tell me something that none of the others could or would.

There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.

Today I must write a paragraph or a page better than I did yesterday.

Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free. Yes, they must believe, they must believe. Because I know what it means to be a slave. I am a slave.

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

Without love for my fellow man and respect for nature, to me, life is an obscenity.