“I dont think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.”

“I speak to the Black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition--about what we can endure, dream, fail at and survive.”

“There is no way to learn endurance other than simply to endure. We can’t learn it in principle or in theory; only pain can teach it to us.”

“Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured...”

“Most of us are ready to greet our worst enemies like long-lost brothers if we think they can show us a good time, if we think they can do us any good or if we even reach the conclusion that being polite will get us just as far and help us live longer.”

“I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt it any more than you can salt salt.”