Quote

It is the duty of the younger Negro artist . . . to change through the force of his art that old whispering I want to be white, hidden in the aspirations of his people, to Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro - and beautiful!

Langston Hughes

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Langston Hughes
Age: 66 †
Born: 1901
Born: February 1
Died: 1967
Died: May 22
Biographer
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Writer
Joplin
Missouri
James Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes
People
Duty
White
Force
Whispering
Black
Aspirations
Artist
Negro
Art
Aspiration
Beautiful
Hidden
Change
Younger

More quotes by Langston Hughes

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I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?
Langston Hughes
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Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
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When I were a young man, I used to play baseball and steal bases just like Jackie Robinson. If the empire would rule me out, I would get mad and hit the empire.
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To create a market for your writing you have to be consistent, professional, a continuing writer - not just a one-article or a one-story or a one-book man.
Langston Hughes
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I went down to the river, I set down on the bank. I tried to think but couldn't, So I jumped in and sank.
Langston Hughes
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I did not believe political directives could be successfully applied to creative writing . . . not to poetry or fiction, which to be valid had to express as truthfully as possible the individual emotions and reactions of the writer.
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Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.
Langston Hughes
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Everything there is but lovin' leaves a rust on your old soul
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Americans of good-will, the nice decent church people, the well-meaning liberals, the good hearted souls who themselves wouldn't lynch anyone, must begin to realize that they have to be more than passively good-hearted, more than church goingly Christian, and much more than word-of-mouth in the liberalism.
Langston Hughes
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Believing everything she read In the daily news, (No in-between to choose) She thought that only One side won, Not that BOTH Might lose.
Langston Hughes
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One of the great difficulties about being a member of a minority race is that so many kindhearted, well-meaning bores gather around to help.
Langston Hughes
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Though you may hear me holler, And you may see me cry-- I'll be dogged, sweet baby, If you gonna see me die.
Langston Hughes
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Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.
Langston Hughes
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The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.
Langston Hughes
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I will not take but for an answer.
Langston Hughes
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Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home.
Langston Hughes
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When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself
Langston Hughes
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As long as what is is-and Georgia is Georgia-I will take Harlem for mine. At least, if trouble comes, I will have my own window to shoot from.
Langston Hughes
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A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the Earth And every man is free.
Langston Hughes
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Life for me ain't been no crystal stair
Langston Hughes