Love is divine only and difficult always.

Isolation, you know, carries the seeds of its own destruction because as times change, other things seep in.

No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple joy could shake you.

The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know.

It's important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Someone says you have no art so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary. There will always be one more thing.

If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up.

Evil is not interesting. What is it, chopping off someone's head? We used to do that as kids, you know, you tear up paper dolls and stuff. I know everyone's done it in the history of the world, but maybe everybody was dumb and they were just looking for something interesting to do. What's really interesting and hard is being good.