Zora Neale Hurston

You can be a lady and do your own work.

The very thing that you are looking for is that which is looking.

Dat's de way it is wid some people. Dey ain't got no mind to their own.

I am a Negro — and I am proud of it.

I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peak of the mountain and shouted for joy.

I want to be a poet, and a novelist, and a playwright, and an anthropologist.

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.

To be human, one must be able to laugh. To be human, one must be able to weep.

Dat's de way it is with some women. Dey ain't got no sense at all.

I am not a writer. I am a storyteller.

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

I am not a feminist. I am a human being.