Quotes From the Classic Novel Black Boy

Black Boy  by Richard Wright was first published in 1945. This autobiographical novel was a bestseller, and it is an important 20th-century work of literature. Another famous novel by Richard Wright, Native Son, was published in 1940. Here are a few quotes from Black Boy. Black Boy Quotes 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. Im hungry now, but I wont live with you. Im doing all I can, When you get through, kiss back there. White, red and black, but quickly tells him to hush, saying, Theyll call you a colored man when you grow up. Do you mind, Mr. Wright? You cant eat a dead dog, can you? If I kissed my elbow, I would turn into a girl. 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, a predilection for what was real that no argument could ever gainsay, a sense of the world that was mine and mine alone, a notion as to what life meant that no education could ever alter, a conviction that the meaning of living came only when one was struggling to wring a meaning out of meaningless suffering. I said to myself, that boy just doesnt know what hes doing... The naked will of power seemed always to walk in the wake of a hymn. You ought to know God through some church. Even if that isnt right, its not far wrong. I never saw a dog bite that could really hurt... the principals speech is the better speech. My ass is tough and quarters is scarce. This was the culture from which i sprang. This was the terror from which I fled. Color hate defined the place of black life as below that of white life... Having been thrust out of the world because of my race, I had accepted my destiny by not being curious about what shaped it. Trying to please everybody, I pleased nobody... We must have a purge. You lost people! I lived in the South and I never saw any chain gangs. Get out of our ranks! I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger of life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human.