I knew Richard [Wright] and I loved him. [...] I was not attacking him; I was trying to clarify something for myself.

The brutal truth is that the bulk of white people in American never had any interest in educating black people, except as this could serve white purposes. It i…

I have never seen myself as a spokesman. I am a witness. In the church in which I was raised you were supposed to bear witness to the truth. Now, later on, you…

It's no credit to this enormously rich country that there are more oppressive, less decent governments elsewhere. We claim superiority of our institutions. We …

Oh, rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers …

The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it.

Of this story I can say that it came to me in an irresistible form, crying to be written. It will be accused perhaps of being a mere piece of sentimentality, b…