And sometimes I sit down at my typewriter and I think not of someone cause there isn't anyone to think about and i wonder is it worth it.

What we have here in this experience of America is a group of people who would not be downtrodden because they had a song to sing and we have a song to sing and there will be a new song for a new day but every day that there is a song we will sing it and our spirits will rise.

You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.

You're only as good as your last book.

We in the Black Arts movement, which wasn't really a movement but a group of people who had similar objectives.

But nonviolence was never for the oppressor; it was for the oppressed.

One stands, in fact, in awe of the Constitution of the United States, though it is an idea and not quite a reality.

I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility.

When younger, I thought one of the particulars of being Homo sapiens was to communicate. I have not learned not to, though I am cautious when I try.

This is for equality ... men and women ... blacks and whites ... jews and arabs ... oriental-occidental ... dreamers and the blind ... brilliant and the dumb ... all equal because we have decided ... they are equal ... it's a good system .

We need to make sure our children travel to see things. Not necessarily long distances but at least out of the neighborhood. On a train. A boat. An airplane.

It's not a ladder we're climbing, it's literature we're producing... We cannot possibly leave it to history as a discipline nor to sociology nor science nor economics to tell the story of our people.

Follow your image as far as you can no matter how useless you think it is. Push yourself.

The catchword I use with my classes is: The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader.

Black love is black wealth.

I try to impress upon my students the importance of looking, listening... paying attention, in other words. You must pay attention.

A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a black face goes with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.

If I could come back as anything -- I'd be a bird, first, but definitely the command key is my second choice.

Poetry is the most informative of all of the arts because everything comes down to poetry. No matter what it is we are describing, ultimately we use either a metaphor; or we say that's poetry in motion. You drink a glass of wine and say, that's poetry in a bottle. Everything is poetry, so I think we come down to emotional information. And that's what poetry conveys.

In the name of peace

They waged the wars

ain't they got no shame.