“Nations, like plants and human beings, grow. And if the development is...” — Claude McKay Quote

“Nations, like plants and human beings, grow. And if the development is thwarted they are dwarfed and overshadowed.”

“Upon the clothes behind the tenement, That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines, Linking each flat, but to each indifferent, Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines.”

“Idealism is like a castle in the air if it is not based on a solid foundation of social and political realism.”

“I'm not very happy. I'm frustrated with human beings. I'm the guy who just wants to smack people in the face and say, 'Wake up!'”

“I think that Michael Jackson, just as an entertainer, as a figure who embodies the contradictions of black identity and the possibilities of R&B music in the '70s and '80s, will continue to be one of the most recognized and formidable human beings that we've ever produced in our tradition.”

“This horror of pain is a rather low instinct and... if I think of human beings I've known and of my own life, such as it is, I can't recall any case of pain which didn't, on the whole, enrich life.”