When human rights are abused on a grand scale, the broth of purity boils and feeds the rebellion of a new order.

In the invincible and indescribable squalor of Harlem ... I was tormented. I felt caged, like an animal. I wanted to escape. I felt if I did not get out I would slowly strangle.

The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.

Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal.

Drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question the answer hides.

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

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.