Richard Wright
Richard Wright
Influential African-American author of Black Boy, Native Son, and Uncle Tom's Children. His work helped improve race relations in the 20th century.
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth4 September 1908
CityRoxie, MS
CountryUnited States of America
american-novelist create darkness echo hunger life matter send wait words
I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.
american-novelist built copied men realities simply
Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons.
again american-novelist beaten impulse slowly ways
The impulse to dream was slowly beaten out of me by experience. Now it surged up again and I hungered for books, new ways of looking and seeing.
american-novelist
I'd like to see the bay cleaned up before I die.
community decent join lad plan stick sure willie wrong
We're not sure how long it will be before Willie can join us because of the community work, but we plan to stick with him because we think he is a decent lad who just got in with the wrong crowd.
court join knew squad travel
We knew about that. We want to get him over to join up with the squad and he can travel back for the court case.
clay everybody hard leader personal took
We really wanted to play hard because of Clay after he got injured. And everybody really took it personal because he's the leader of our defense.
speculate talked
We could speculate all day as to what they talked about.
thinking land cities
Each day when you see us black folk upon the dusty land of your farm or upon the hard pavement of your city streets, you usually take it for granted and think you know us, but our history is far stranger than you suspect, and we are not what we seem.
knowing awful another-chance
I listened, vaguely knowing now that I had committed some awful wrong that I could not undo, that I had uttered words I could not recall even though I ached to nullify them, kill them, turn back time to the moment before I had talked so that I could have another chance to save myself.
attitude suffering-of-others peaceful
At the age of twelve I had an attitude toward life that was to endure, that was to make me seek those areas of living that would keep it alive, that was to make me skeptical of everything while seeking everything, tolerant of all and yet critical. The spirit I had caught gave me insight into the suffering of others, made me gravitate toward those whose feelings were like my own, made me sit for hours while others told me of their lives, made me strangely tender and cruel, violent and peaceful.
art imagination bows
The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination.