"I have been in sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peak of happiness and seen the world. I have been loved and hated, and I have done some of both. I have been a fri…"

"The very first thing I want to do is to get hold of a white man and get him to tell me how he feels about being white."

"I want to be a poet, a painter, a writer, a dancer, a singer. I want to be a human being."

"I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads."

"The first thing a Negro learns in this country is to lie."