"I've been a dishwasher, a cook, a busboy, a waiter, a laundress, a delivery boy, a truck driver, a chauffeur, a gardener, a bellhop, a doorman, a houseman, a janitor, a porter, a longshoreman, a seama…"

"The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it."

"I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread. Freedom Is a strong seed. Planted In a great need. I live here, too. I want freedom. Just as you."

"Perhaps the most interesting thing about Negroes is that they are so much like everybody else."

"My soul has grown deep like the rivers."