Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

A person does not lightly elect to oppose his society. One would much rather be at home among one's compatriots than be mocked and detested by them. And there is a level on which the mockery of people, even their hatred, is moving, because it is so blind: It is terrible to watch people cling to their captivity and insist on their own destruction.

To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.

The real victim of bigotry is the white man who hides his weakness under his myth of superiority.

Writing is a political instrument.

Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.

I will no longer take anyone's word for my experience.