Richard Wright

"I am not ashamed of my past; I am not afraid of my future."

"The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter even by a millimeter the way people look at reality, then you can change the world."

"I would rather be a black man in America than a white man anywhere else."

"Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question."

"Hunger and fear make a man weak."

"The difference between neurosis and religion is that neurosis is private whereas religion is shared with others."

"I've never been able to sleep well the night before the day of execution."

"I felt I was not really living, but merely existing."

"No organized church could hold me."

"Writing was the only thing that could alleviate my distress."

"The most effective argument is a life lived."

"I would hate myself if I thought I was just writing another book to make money."

"I'm a stranger in this world."

"Knowledge is power."

"I am of the things that happen in the night."

"I stand before you as a creator of stories and a seeker of truth."

"The object of art is to produce a new kind of object."

"I know that what I'm asking for may seem strange, but I am asking for nothing less than life itself."

"To have meaning, life must relate to something beyond itself."

"I want to create a new form of understanding."

"The most powerful weapon is not violence but words."

"I have tried to picture America as it is to me."

"I am what is called a revolutionary writer."

"Life cannot be understood without knowing the agony of social injustice."

"I write because the world confuses me."

"The purpose of a writer is to reveal the truth that lies beneath the surface of things."

"I belong to the world's outcasts."

"Time is the final judge of truth."

"Every sentence I write contains the whole of my experience."

"I am conscious of living in a state of constant spiritual turmoil."