Langston Hughes

“My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind.”

“The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.”

“I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn't, So I jumped in and sank.”

“There is no color line in death. I swear to the lord I still can't see Why Democracy means Everybody but me. O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath - America will be! I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.”

“Through my grandmother's stories always life moved, moved heroically toward an end. Nobody ever cried in my grandmother's stories. They worked, or schemed, or fought. But no crying. When my grandmother died, I didn't cry, either. Something about my grandmother's stories (without her ever having said so) taught me the uselessness of crying about anything."”

“The first of the month falls every month, too, North or South. And them white folks who sends bills never forgets to send them-the phone bill, the furniture bill, the water bill, the gas bill, insurance, house rent.”

“Violent anger makes me physically ill.”

“Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break.”

“Folks, I'm telling you, birthing is hard and dying is mean- so get yourself a little loving in between.”

“I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.”

“Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling.”

“Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now -- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.”

“America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath - America will be!”

“LIBERTY! FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY! True anyhow no matter how many Liars use those words.”

“Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.”

“There's a certain amount of traveling in a dream deferred.”

“Looks like what drives me crazy Don't have no effect on you-- But I'm gonna keep on at it Till it drives you crazy, too.”

“Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.”

“Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.”

“One of the great difficulties about being a member of a minority race is that so many kindhearted, well-meaning bores gather around to help.”

“When I were a young man, I used to play baseball and steal bases just like Jackie Robinson. If the empire would rule me out, I would get mad and hit the empire.”

“Hang yourself, poet, in your own words.Otherwise, you are dead.”

“Out of love, No regrets-- Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets-- Though the return Be never.”

“The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss”

“So since I'm still here livin', I guess I will live on. I could've died for love-- But for livin' I was born.”

“Life is a system of half-truths and lies, Opportunistic, convenient evasion.”

“Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed -Let it be that great strong land of loveWhere never kings connive nor tyrants schemeThat any man be crushed by one above.”

“One of the great needs of Negro children is to have books about themselves and their lives that can help them be proud.”

“My personal experience has been that in my 25 years of writing, I have not been asked to do more than four or five commercial one-shot scripts. These were performed on major national hook-ups but produced for me no immediate additional jobs or requests. One script for BBC was done around the world with an all-star cast.”

“Humor is when the joke's on you but hits the other fellow first -- before it boomerangs.”

“But there are certain very practical things American Negro writers can do. And must do. There's a song that says, "the time ain't long." That song is right. Something has got to change in America-and change soon. We must help that change to come.”

“Books -where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas”

“I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, but I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong.”

“The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night And I love the rain.”

“I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.”

“I've been scared and battered. My hopes the wind done scattered. Snow has friz me, Sun has baked me, Looks like between 'em they done Tried to make me Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'-- But I don't care! I'm still here!”

“If the government can set aside some spot for a elk to be a elk without being bothered, or a buffalo to be a buffalo without being shot down, there ought to be some place where a Negro can be a Negro without being Jim Crowed.”

“Summer was made to give you a taste of what hell is like. Winter was made for landladies to charge high rents and keep cold radiators and make a fortune off of poor tenants.”

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?”

“Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.”

“Good evening, daddy! Ain't you heard The boogie-woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? Trilling the treble And twining the bass Into midnight ruffles Of cat-gut lace.”

“Hard as I try, daddy-o, I really do not like concert singers. They are always singing in some foreign language.”

“Even the 'Negro' shows like 'Amos and Andy' and 'Beulah' are written largely by white writers - the better to preserve the stereotypes, I imagine.”

“In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.”

“Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people - the beauty within themselves.”

“We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased, we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”

“An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.”

“Certainly there is, for the American Negro artist who can escape the restrictions the more advanced among his own group would put upon him, a great field of unused material ready for his art.”

“Peace We passed their graves: The dead men there, Winners or losers, Did not care. In the dark They could not see Who had gained The victory.”

“Words Like Freedom There are words like Freedom Sweet and wonderful to say. On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday. There are words like Liberty That almost make me cry. If you had known what I know You would know why.”