It is a very grave matter to be forced to imitate a people for whom you know-which is the price of your performance and survival-you do not exist. It is hard to imitate a people whose existence appears, mainly, to be made tolerable by their bottomless gratitude that they are not, thank heaven, you.

An American Negro, however deep his sympathies, or however bright his rage, ceases to be simply a black man when he faces a black man from Africa.

After departure, only invisible things are left, perhaps the life of the world is held together by invisible chains of memory and loss and love. So many things, so many people, depart! And we can only repossess them in our minds.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did - which was to hide.

This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again.

Because I was raised in a Christian culture I never considered myself to be a totally free human being.

It is astonishing that in a country so devoted to the individual, so many people should be afraid to speak.