At the age of twelve, before I had had one full year of formal schooling, I had a conception of life that no experience would ever erase.Richard Wright
Each day I felt as if I were looking upon a dim light from a great distance. I knew that the light was within me, yet I could not reach it. But the world knew nothing of this.Richard Wright
I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.Richard Wright
In buoying me up, reading also cast me down, made me see what was closed, lost, and severed.Richard Wright
The faint cool kiss of sensuality when dew came onto my cheeks and shins as I ran down the wet green garden paths in the early morning.Richard Wright
I took the gun and ran my fingers along the cold steel of it. I knew it could not help me, but it filled my hand.Richard Wright
There are days that I can hardly hold a knife and fork… But I won’t starve. No, by God, not that, but I’ll tell you, it’s Hell to be hungry all the time.Richard Wright
I was leaving part of myself behind, and if living in the North taught me anything, it taught me to hold on to what was really mine.Richard Wright
Even a hunger for knowledge can leave one empty or full, depending upon what one does with that knowledge.Richard Wright
I feel like this Earth is not my home. I see people and I feel I’m from another world. I see their work and their pleasure and it looks meaningless, aimless.Richard Wright
I was not so much seeking knowledge as fleeing from ignorance.Richard Wright
A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.Richard Wright