Publisher Quotes

“I, too, sing America. 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. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am America.”

“I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.”

“Most musicians remain poor. But the music that they make, even if it does not bring them millions, gives millions of people happiness.”

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

“This morning I paid seventy cents for two little old dried-up slivers of bacon and one cockeyed egg. It took me till noon to get my appetite back.”

“I felt very bad in Washington. . . I didn't like my job, and I didn't know what was going to happen to me, and I was cold and half-hungry, so I wrote a great many poems.”

“Though you may hear me holler, And you may see me cry-- I'll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die.”

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

“Writing is like travelling. It's wonderful to go somewhere, but you get tired of staying.”

“I dream a world... where wretchedness will hang its head and joy, like a pearl, attends the needs of all mankind. Of such I dream, my world!”

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

“Wear it Like a banner For the proud? Not like a shroud.”

“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!”

“Sometimes I wish the public were equally aware of the men of our race in the cultural fields. You, for instance, have you ever bought a book by a Negro writer?”

“The Jewish people and the Negro people both know the meaning of Nordic supremacy. We have both looked into the eyes of terror.”

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

“I don't dare start thinking in the morning. I don't dare start thinking in the morning. If I thought thoughts in bed, Them thoughts would bust my head-- So I don't dare start thinking in the morning.”

“It's such a Bore Being always Poor.”

“When you turn the corner And you run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left.”

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... Or does it explode?”

“It has seemed to me that most people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been.”

“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.”

“We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”

“Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.”

“I must never write when I do not want to write.”