Art is an elastic sort of love.

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?

Is that what they call a vocation, what you do with joy as if you had fire in your heart, the devil in your body?

You must get an education. You must go to school, and you must learn to protect yourself. And you must learn to protect yourself with the pen, and not the gun.

Beautiful? It's all a question of luck. I was born with good legs. As for the rest... beautiful, no. Amusing, yes.

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

We've got to show that blacks and whites are treated equally in the army. Otherwise, what's the point of waging war on Hitler?