The interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world.

It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death-- ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us.

The great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.

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

To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.

If all you want to do is make money, the very last thing you need is imagination.

It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful mirror.