Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Do you know that there are libraries in our country that will not stock a book by a Negro writer, not even as a gift? There are towns where Negro newspapers and magazines cannot be sold except surreptitiously. There are American magazines that have never published anything by Negroes. There are film studios that have never hired a Negro writer. Censorship for us begins at the color line.

They [the police] learned something from them Harlem riots. They used to beat your head right in public, but now they only beat it after they get you down to the station house.

Hard as I try, daddy-o, I really do not like concert singers. They are always singing in some foreign language.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I know how to handle women who act like ladies, but my landlady ain't no lady. Sometimes I even wish I was living with my wife again so I could have my own place and not have no landladies.

One of the great difficulties about being a member of a minority race is that so many kindhearted, well-meaning bores gather around to help.

Gather up In the arms of your love—Those who expect No love from above.