The world's definitions are one thing and the life one actually lives is quite another. One cannot allow oneself, nor one's family, friends, or lovers - to say nothing of one's children - to live according to the world's definitions: one must find a way, perpetually, to be stronger and better than that.

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.

After my best friend jumped off the bridge, I knew that I was next. So-Paris. With forty dollars and a one-way ticket.

The interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world.

A ghetto can be improved in one way only: out of existence.

The relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others in order to end the racial nightmare and acheive our country.

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