Sex was a pleasurable form of exercise, like dancing.

What am I most ashamed of in my life? Not keeping my promise to my sister and being too scared of America to attend her funeral.

One day I realized I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was only a country for white people. Not black. So I left. I had been suffocating in the United States... A lot of us left, not because we wanted to leave, but because we couldn't stand it anymore... I felt liberated in Paris.

God dislikes evil, and no happiness can be built on hate. Love one another as brothers.

A violinist had a violin, a painter his palette. All I had was myself. I was the instrument that I must care for.

My people have a country of their own to go to if they choose... Africa... but, this America belongs to them just as much as it does to any of the white race... in some ways even more so, because they gave the sweat of their brow and their blood in slavery so that many parts of America could become prosperous and recognized in the world.

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad.