Langston Hughes
49 quotes
Biography
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."
"Hold fast to dreams,For if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged bird,That cannot fly."
"Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you."
"Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it."
"Life is for the living.Death is for the dead.Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid."
"An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose."
"Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby."
"I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go."
"I went down to the river,I set down on the bank.I tried to think but couldn't,So I jumped in and sank."
"Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.I like to work, read, learn, and understand life."
"Looks like what drives me crazyDon't have no effect on you--But I'm gonna keep on at itTill it drives you crazy, too."
"HarlemWhat happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.Or does it explode?"
"I stay cool, and dig all jive,That's the way I stay alive.My motto, as I live and learn, isDig and be dugIn return."
"Oh, God of Dust and Rainbows,Help us to seeThat without the dust the rainbowWould not be."
"Though you may hear me holler,And you may see me cry--I'll be dogged, sweet baby,If you gonna see me die."
"So since I'm still here livin',I guess I will live on.I could've died for love--But for livin' I was born."
"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."
"Out of love,No regrets--Though the goodnessBe wasted forever.Out of love,No regrets--Though the returnBe never."
"Yet the ivory gods, And the ebony gods, And the gods of diamond-jade, Are only silly puppet gods That people themselves Have made.-"
"Cheap little rhymesA cheap little tuneAre sometimes as dangerousAs a sliver of the moon."
"If I were marooned on a desert island...I would miss...Jackie Ormes's cute drawings"
"You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word “Negro” is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all Negro, therefore black. I am brown. My father was a darker brown. My mother an olive-yellow."
"For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly."
"Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying."
"Negroes - Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day - They change their mind."