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.

at a certain moment in social proceedings, I am on FIRE to leave: I have a leaving-FIT.

We are each other's magnitude and bond.

Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.

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.

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.

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