Recognizing a problem doesn't always bring a solution, but until we recognize that problem, there can be no solution.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

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.

To defend oneself against a fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced.

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.

I often wonder what I'd do if there weren't any books in the world.