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As a protective mechanism, I developed a terse, cynical mode of speech that rebuffed those who sought to get too close to me. Conversation was my way of avoiding expression; my words were reserved for those times when I sat down alone to write. My face was always a deadpan or a mask of general friendliness; no word or event could jar me into a gesture of enthusiasm or despair.

— Richard Wright Black Boy (American Hunger) (1991)

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More quotes by Richard Wright

The plots and stories in the novels did not interest me so much as the point of view revealed.

Black Boy (1945)

He was sitting in a white home; dim lights burned round him; strange objects challenged him; and he was feeling angry and uncomfortable.

Native Son (1940)

"And still when the delicate and unconscious machinery of race relations slips, there will be murder again. How can law contradict the lives of millions of people and hope to be administered successfully?"

Native Son (1940)

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.

Native Son (1940)

How can the spirit of the Enlightenment and the Reformation be extended now to all men?

White Man, Listen! (1957)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Richard Wright (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.