Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal.

The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever.

I started reading. I read everything I could get my hands on...By the time I was thirteen I had read myself out of Harlem. I had read every book in two libraries and had a card for the Forty-Second Street branch.

After my best friend jumped off the bridge, I knew that I was next. So-Paris. With forty dollars and a one-way ticket.

One day, to everyone’s astonishment, someone drops a match in the powder keg and everything blows up.

All of Africa will be free before we can get a lousy cup of coffee.

The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.