There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the Indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits.
To like an individual because he's black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn't white.
The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.
I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.
The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extra human architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish.
“I dreamt -- marvellous error! -- that I had a beehive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.”
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.
Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare.
It is not white hair that engenders wisdom.
Children will be children! Black and blonde and white Shall be the petals of the same flower…
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.
All will pass like smoke of white apple trees Seized by the gold of autumn, I will no longer be young.