“America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so...” — Ralph Ellison Quote

America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description.

The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life.

And all Negroes at some period of their lives there is that yearning for a sense of group unity that is the yearning of men for a flag: for a unity that cannot be compromised, that cannot be bought; that is conscious of itself, of its strength, that is militant.

a delegate shout out from the floor: “Peonage, Anti-Lynch Bill, poll tax, these are our issues. They are the most controversial issues in American life, and some of us will have to die for them! Yes, we want to join with the CIO! We cannot stop for controversy!” And there in the faces of my people I saw strength. There with the whites in the audience I saw the positive forces of civilization and the best guarantee of America’s future.

If Senator Kerry understands the nature of this threat and the need to take on terror, then he should immediately repudiate these troubling comments, and stop all efforts on behalf of his surrogates to blame America for these attacks.

Unfortunately we - and I'm speaking not for Latin America but for Mexico because that's where I come from - we still, I think, are a little bit macho. Not that we only live in a macho world, but we also think as a macho world; even the women, you know? The women in Mexico, because that's the way we were raised.

My answer to the racial problem in America is to not deal with it at all. The founding fathers dealt with it when they made the Constitution.

It is time to show the whole world that America is back - bigger and better and stronger than ever before.