Langston Hughes — "I am the American heartbreak—the rock on which Freedom stumped its toe."

"Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly."

"When a man starts out with nothing, he's got to have a lot of brass to get somewhere."

"I have written a poem about a pig."

"I remember the days when I was a kid and I used to go to the movies and sit in the balcony. And I would see the white kids downstairs, and I would be up there with all the other colored kids."

"I've been a dishwasher, a cook, a busboy, a waiter, a laundress, a delivery boy, a truck driver, a chauffeur, a gardener, a bellhop, a doorman, a houseman, a janitor, a porter, a longshoreman, a seama…"