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Politics in any country in the world is dangerous. For the poet, politics in any country had better be disguised as poetry. Politics can be the graveyard of the poet. And only poetry can be his resurrection.

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
Dangerous
Politics
Better
Disguised
Country
Graveyard
World
Resurrection
Poet
Poetry

More quotes by 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.
Langston Hughes
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Money and art are far apart.
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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Blues had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going.
Langston Hughes
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I will not take but for an answer.
Langston Hughes
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Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear.
Langston Hughes
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Everything there is but lovin' leaves a rust on your old soul
Langston Hughes
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Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed - Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.
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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Reach Up Your Hand... and take a star.
Langston Hughes
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Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.
Langston Hughes
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An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
Langston Hughes
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I swear to the Lord, I still can't see, why Democracy means, everybody but me.
Langston Hughes
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Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.
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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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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Your explanation depresses me, I said. Your nonsense depresses me, said Simple.
Langston Hughes
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I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa.
Langston Hughes
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This is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America - this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.
Langston Hughes
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Out of love, No regrets-- Though the goodness Be wasted forever. Out of love, No regrets-- Though the return Be never.
Langston Hughes