Richard Wright

Is not life exactly what it ought to be, in a certain sense? Isn't it only the naive who find all of this baffling? If you've a notion of what man's heart is, wouldn't you say that maybe the whole effort of man on earth to build a civilization is simply man's frantic and frightened attempt to hide himself from himself?
-Richard Wright

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.
-Richard Wright

Blues, spirituals, and folk tales recounted from mouth to mouth . . . all these formed the channels through which the . . . wisdom flowed.
-Richard Wright

The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination.
-Richard Wright