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For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn't write anything.

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
Written
Happy
Write
Felt
Didn
Anything
Best
Poems
Writing
Worst

More quotes by Langston Hughes

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There is no color line in death. I swear to the lord I still can't see Why Democracy means Everybody but me. O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath - America will be! I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.
Langston Hughes
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7 x 7 + love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7 - love.
Langston Hughes
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Hard as I try, daddy-o, I really do not like concert singers. They are always singing in some foreign language.
Langston Hughes
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Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. The mountains and the endless plain-- All, all the stretch of these great green states-- And make America again!
Langston Hughes
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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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I will not take 'but' for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's 'but' too long.
Langston Hughes
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Words Like Freedom There are words like Freedom Sweet and wonderful to say. On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday. There are words like Liberty That almost make me cry. If you had known what I know You would know why.
Langston Hughes
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I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Langston Hughes
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The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss
Langston Hughes
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I am the American heartbreak- The rock on which Freedom Stumped its toe.
Langston Hughes
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Life is an egg you have to be patient and careful with it or it will break.
Langston Hughes
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When poems stop talking about the moon and begin to mention poverty, trade unions, color, color lines and colonies, somebody tells the police.
Langston Hughes
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This morning I paid seventy cents for two little old dried-up slivers of bacon and one cockeyed egg. It took me till noon to get my appetite back.
Langston Hughes
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Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think I suffer after I have held my pain So long? Because my mouth Is wide with laughter You do not hear My inner cry? Because my feet Are gay with dancing You do not know I die?
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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Good morning, Revolution: You're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on
Langston Hughes
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I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, but I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong.
Langston Hughes
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Wear it Like a banner For the proud? Not like a shroud.
Langston Hughes
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Never look for a worm in the apple of your eye.
Langston Hughes
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I look at my own body With eyes no longer blind- And I see that my own hands can make The world that's in my mind.
Langston Hughes