James Weldon Johnson

You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.

I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.

As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little aristocrat.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

I wrote in the 'War of Art' that I could divide my life neatly into two parts: before turning pro and after. After is better.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.