"I do not think white America is committed to granting equality to the American Negro. This is a passionately racist country it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future."

"Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art."

"Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future."

"The becoming of man is the history of the exhaustion of his possibilities."

"The same people who smile in my face would be the same ones to talk behind my back."

"I think it's funny to be delicate with subjects that are explosive."

"I want to be in 'Funny Girl.' And I want Ryan Murphy to direct it."

"I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor."