I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race; but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would; that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead.

My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her.

And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.

I'm lonely I'll make me a world.

I found cause to wonder upon what ground the English accuse Americans of corrupting the language by introducing slang words. I think I heard more and more different kinds of slang during my few weeks' stay in London than in my whole "tenderloin" life in New York. But I suppose the English feel that the language is theirs, and that they may do with it as they please without at the same time allowing that privilege to others.

Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.

She was my first love, and I loved her as only a boy loves.