I think that the inability to love is the central problem, because that inability masks a certain terror, and that terror is the terror of being touched. And if you can't be touched, you can't be changed. And if you can't be changed, you can't be alive.

The past is what makes the present coherent, and the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.

If you really want to know something about solitude, become famous.

The future is like heaven-everyone exalts it but no one wants to go there now.

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

But, when the chips are down, its better to be furious with someone you love, or frightened for someone you love, than be put through the merciless horror of being ashamed of someone you love.

I prefer sinners and madmen, who can learn, who can change, who can teach-or people like myself, if I may say so, who are not afraid to eat a lobster alone as they take on their shoulders the monumental weight of thirty years