Intelligence always had a pornographic influence on me.

I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.

Try, start always at home. This is my encouragement to all writers, start at home. All virtues and vices begin at home, and then spread abroad.

Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.

For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition.

No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.