I don't like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.

We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.

I believe we should all know each other, we human carriers of so many pleasurable differences. To not know is to doubt, to shrink from, sidestep or destroy.

We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

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

Goodness begins simply with the fact of life itself.

When you love a man, he becomes more than a body. His physical limbs expand, and his outline recedes, vanishes. He is rich and sweet and right. He is part of the world, the atmosphere, the blue sky and the blue water.