When you get up in the morning, you merely put on your clothes. When a colored man gets up in the morning, he puts on his armor.

First it is necessary to stand on your own two feet. But the minute a man finds himself in that position, the next thing he should do is reach out his arms.

When you get up in the morning, you merely put on your clothes. When a colored man gets up in the morning, he puts on his armor.

...one of my motivating forces has been to recreate the world I know into a world I wish I could be in. Hence my optimism and happy endings.

I don't see black people as victims even though we are exploited. Victims are flat, one- dimensional characters, someone rolled over by a steamroller so you have a cardboard person. We are far more resilient and more rounded than that. I will go on showing there's more to us than our being victimized. Victims are dead.

I have never felt a placard and a poem are in any way similar.

The most amazing thing about little children ... was their fantastic adaptability.