The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.

Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.

The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in

Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.

There is a ''sanctity'' involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it.

The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.