The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly.

It is only because the world looks on his talent with such a frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important.

To be with God is really to be involved in some enormous, overwhelming desire, and joy, and power which you cannot control, which controls you.

We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.

Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise. If we do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world.