Words can do wonderful things. They pound, purr. They can urge, they can wheedle, whip, whine. They can sing, sass, singe. They can churn, check, channelize. They can be a "Hup two three four." They can forge a fiery army of a hundred languid men.

A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.

When white and black meet today, sometimes there is a ready understanding that there has been an encounter between two human beings. But often there is only, or chiefly, an awareness that Two Colors are in the room.

... sometimes you have to deal / Devilishly with drowning men in order to swim them to shore.

We are each other's magnitude and bond.

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies. And be it gash or gold it will not come again in this identical guise.

I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker.