An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.

People are too various to be treated so lightly. I am too various to be trusted.

True rebels after all, are as rare as true lovers,and in both cases, to mistake a fever for passion can destroy one's life

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.

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

All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours.

The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.