“An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.”

“Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.”

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

“Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.”

“Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.”

“I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.”

“I live in Harlem, New York City. I am unmarried. I like 'Tristan,' goat's milk, short novels, lyric poems, heat, simple folk, boats and bullfights; I dislike 'Aida,' parsnips, long novels, narrative poems, cold, pretentious folk, buses and bridges.”

“I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.”

“I will not take 'but' for an answer.”

“In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.”

“It's such a Bore Being always Poor.”

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”

“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.”

“My chief literary influences have been Paul Laurence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman. My favorite public figures include Jimmy Durante, Marlene Dietrich, Mary McLeod Bethune, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Marian Anderson, and Henry Armstrong.”

“My personal experience has been that in my 25 years of writing, I have not been asked to do more than four or five commercial one-shot scripts. These were performed on major national hook-ups but produced for me no immediate additional jobs or requests. One script for BBC was done around the world with an all-star cast.”

“My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

“Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people - the beauty within themselves.”

“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or does it explode?”

“When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.”