I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.

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

I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States, because of that terror of discrimination.

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.

I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.

I was learning the importance of names - having them, making them - but at the same time I sensed the dangers. Recognition was followed by oblivion, a yawning maw whose victims disappeared without a trace.

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.