When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.

I don't ever want to be a sentimentalist. I prefer to be a realist. I'm not a romantic really.

Stuttering is painful. In Sunday school, I'd try to read my lessons, and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter.

Once you begin to explain or excuse all events on racial grounds, you begin to indulge in the perilous mythology of race.

Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack.

Speech is a very important aspect of being human. A whisper doesn't cut it.

You weren't going to the theatre to change the world, but you had a chance to affect the world, the thinking and the feelings of the world.