Alex Haley

Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.

The main thing you got to remember is that everything in the world is a hustle.

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.

In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.

Racism is taught in our society... it is not automatic. 
It is learned behavior toward persons with 
dissimilar physical characteristics.

Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.

I certainly wasn't seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me, asking questions. One was, "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books.