"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."

"I was not a Negro. I was a Black man. And my country is not a country. It is a state of mind."

"The world is not a safe place. It never was."

"You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world."

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."