"To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time."

"It is not possible to be an American and not be a racist. You have to work at it."

"People who believe that they are white, and who are not, are a very great danger to us all."

"The world is before you, and you need not take it, or suffer it, as it is, but can remake it, and remake yourself."

"The responsibility of a writer is to excavate the experience of the people he's writing about."