"One of the things that I think makes me a good writer is that I'm a good listener."

"To be a Negro in this country is really to be an invisible man."

"The whole language of love, in this country, is terribly debased."

"I think the great problem in America is that we've never been able to face the fact that we were founded on a lie."

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read."