The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one's heroic ancestors.

It is dangerous to be an American Negro male. America has never wanted its Negroes to be men, and does not, generally, treat them as men. It treats them as mascots, pets, or things.

If you're afraid to die, you will not be able to live.

A person does not lightly elect to oppose his society. One would much rather be at home among one's compatriots than be mocked and detested by them. And there is a level on which the mockery of people, even their hatred, is moving, because it is so blind: It is terrible to watch people cling to their captivity and insist on their own destruction.

I am aware that no man is a villain in his own eyes.

Because I was raised in a Christian culture I never considered myself to be a totally free human being.