Introducing someone as a "Negro poet with a University degree" or again, quite simply, the expression, "a great black poet." These ready-made phrases, which seem in a common-sense way to fill a need-or have a hidden subtlety, a permanent rub.

I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object in the midst of other objects.

Violence is man re-creating himself.

In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.

The oppressed will always believe the worst about themselves.

Certain things need to be said if one is to avoid falsifying the problem.

No attempt must be made to encase man, for it is his destiny to be set free.