The Harlem of my books was never meant to be real; I never called it real; I just wanted to take it away from the white man if only in my books.

Democracy is not tolerance. Democracy is a prescribed way of life erected on the premise that all men are created equal.

It seemed so illogical to punish some poor criminal for doing something that civilization taught him how to do so he could have something that civilization taught him how to want. It seemed to him as wrong as if they had hung the gun that shot the man.

Man cannot live without some knowledge of the purpose of life. If he can find no purpose in life he creates one in the inevitability of death.