A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a black face goes with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.

Once you know who you are, you don't have to worry anymore.

I am honest; I try to be truthful. I like people and wish us well. We are not always deserving of our own best wishes.

There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.

You're only as good as your last book.

Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul.

I knew Stokely [Carmichael] and them, but when you got to that, you saw that Nina Simone started to take up their burden. She started to preach for them. She was taking on the burden of "I want to tell the people."