Richard Wright

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.
― Richard Wright, Native Son

Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books...
― Richard Wright, Black Boy

Reading was like a drug, a dope. The novels created moods in which I lived for days.
― Richard Wright, Black Boy

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 the hunger for life that gnaws in us all.
― Richard Wright, Black Boy