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'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.

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

You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you.

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.

He was my cream, and I was his coffee - And when you poured us together, it was something.

Friends, to me for years St. Louis represented a city of fear... humiliation... misery and terror... A city where in the eyes of the white man a Negro should know his place and had better stay in it.