"The world is before you, and you need not take it, or suffer it, for what it is. You can also make it what it will be."

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

"The most crucial time in my own life was when I realized that I was not unique."

"It is a fact that I am a writer. It is not a fact that I am a Negro writer."

"One can scarcely be so private as to be unaware of what is happening in the world."