Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

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

Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.

History is not a procession of illustrious people. It's about what happens to a people. Millions of anonymous people is what history is about.

Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.

There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves. People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?) but they love the idea of being superior.

All art is a kind of confession.