"I want to be myself, and I want to be a woman, and I want to be an American. And I want to be all of these things without apology."

"Dat's de truth, for it's de only thing dat ain't subject to change."

"The Negro is a poet in spite of himself."

"It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it."

"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."