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I Certainly Wasn't Seeking Any Degree, The Way A College Confers A Status Symbol Upon Its Students. My Homemade Education Gave Me, With Every Additional Book That I Read, A Little Bit More Sensitivity To The Deafness, Dumbness And Blindness That Was Afflicting The Black Race In America. Not Long Ago, An English Writer Telephoned Me, Asking Questions. One Was, "what's Your Alma Mater?" I Told Him, "books.

In All Of Us There Is A Hunger, Marrow-deep, To Know Our Heritage- To Know Who We Are And Where We Have Come From. Without This Enriching Knowledge, There Is A Hollow Yearning. No Matter What Our Attainments In Life, There Is Still A Vacuum, An Emptiness, And The Most Disquieting Loneliness.

I Wasn't Going To Be One Of Those People Who Died Wondering What If? I Would Keep Putting My Dreams To The Test - Even Though It Meant Living With Uncertainty And Fear Of Failure. This Is The Shadowland Of Hope, And Anyone With A Dream Must Learn To Live There.

Many A Young Person Tells Me He Wants To Be A Writer. I Always Encourage Such People, But I Also Explain That There's A Big Difference Between Being A Writer And Writing. In Most Cases These Individuals Are Dreaming Of Wealth And Fame, Not The Long Hours Alone At The Typewriter. You've Got To Want To Write, I Say To Them, Not Want To Be A Writer. The Reality Is That Writing Is A Lonely, Private And Poor-paying Affair. For Every Writer Kissed By Fortune, There Are Thousands More Whose Longing Is Never Requited. Even Those Who Succeed Often Know Long Periods Of Neglect And Poverty. I Did.

You Can Never Enslave Somebody Who Knows Who He Is.