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.

If I could make you stay, I would,’ he shouted. ‘If I had to beat you, chain you, starve you—if I could make you stay, I would.’ He turned back into the room; the wind blew his hair. He shook his finger at me, grotesquely playful. ‘One day, perhaps, you will wish I had.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.

I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself.

People can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.

It is only because the world looks on his talent with such a frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important.