“American straightforwardness is almost as disarming as Americans invariably think it is.”

I look at you and I see the final triumph of stupidity in the world!

One for whom bread- food- is not enough.

Though it be a thrilling and marvellous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so – doubly dynamic – to be young, gifted and black.

Ball points belong to their age. They make everyone write alike.

The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.

Beneatha: You didn’t tell us what Alaiyo means… for all I know, you might be calling me Little Idiot or something… … Asagai: It means… it means One for Whom Bread–Food–Is Not Enough.

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.

I happen to believe that most people – and this is where I differ from many of my contemporaries, or at least as they express themselves – I think that virtually every human being is dramatically interesting. Not only is he dramatically interesting, he is a creature of stature whoever he is.

There is always something left to love. And if you haven’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing.

I believe that one of the most sound ideas in dramatic writing is that in order to create the universal, you must pay very great attention to the specific. Universality, I think, emerges from truthful identity of what is.

Take away the violence and who will hear the man of peace?

Never be afraid to sit a while and think.

Obviously the most oppressed of any oppressed group will be its women

Big Walter used to say, he’d get right wet in the eyes sometimes, lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes and say, ‘Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams – but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while.’

Ah, I like the look of packing crates! A household in preparation for a journey! … Something full of the flow of life, do you understand? Movement, progress…

I want to fly! I want to touch the sun!” “Finish your eggs first.

If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.