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

"People who believe that they are white, and act on that belief, have to remain in a state of moral arrest."

"To be sensual is to be awake and present to the world."

"I often wonder what it is they think is going to happen when they die. I mean, they’re so busy trying to live, they don’t have time to die."

"The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated."