Secrets hidden at the heart of midnight are simply waiting to be dragged to the light, as, on some unlucky high noon, they always are. But secrets shrouded in the glare of candor are bound to defeat even the most determined and agile inspector for the light is always changing and proves that the eye cannot be trusted.

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

Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.

If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.

The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.

Rage cannot be hidden, it can only be dissembled. This dissembling deludes the thoughtless, and strengthens rage and adds, to rage, contempt.

It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.