The white imagination is sure something when it comes to blacks.

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.

The hate directed against the colored people here in St. Louis has always given me a sad feeling... How can you expect the world to believe in you and respect your preaching of democracy when you yourself treat your colored brothers as you do?

I shall dance all my life. . . . I would like to die, breathless, spent, at the end of a dance.

I believe if the white and colored people could get together and be let alone, they would understand each other and consequently love each other.

I have never really been a great artist. I have been a human being that has loved art, which is not the same thing. But I have loved and believed in art and the idea of universal brotherhood so much, that I have put everything I have into them, and I have been blessed.

I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.