People said that he was very nice, but I confess that his utter grotesqueness made me uneasy; perhaps in the same way that the sight of monkeys eating their own excrement turns some people’s stomachs. They might not mind so much if monkeys did not- so grotesquely- resemble human beings.

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

The face of a lover is an unknown, precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment.

The real victim of bigotry is the white man who hides his weakness under his myth of superiority.

You've got to tell the world how to treat you. If the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble.

Color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.

When the book comes out it may hurt you - but in order for me to do it, it had to hurt me first. I can only tell you about yourself as much as I can face about myself.