Native Son Quotes

• Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.

  James A. Baldwin

  Hate, Men, Law

  47 Copy quote

• He had lived and acted on the assumption that he was alone, and now he saw that he had not been. What he had done made others suffer. No matter how much he would long for them to forget him, they would not be able to. His family was a part of him, not only in blood, but in spirit.

  Richard Wright

  Blood, Long, Suffering

  Richard Wright (1957). “Native Son”, p.277, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.

  Richard Wright

  Integrity, Men, Self

  Richard Wright (1957). “Native Son”, p.366, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

  96 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm a licensed private investigator and have been for quite a while. I'm a lone wolf, unmarried, getting middle-aged, and not rich. I've been in jail more than once and I don't do divorce business. I like liquor and women and chess and a few other things. The cops don't like me too well, but I know a couple I get along with. I'm a native son, born in Santa Rosa, both parents dead, no brothers or sisters, and when I get knocked off in a dark alley sometime, if it happens, as it could to anyone in my business, nobody will feel that the bottom has dropped out of his or her life.

  Raymond Chandler

  Brother, Couple, Divorce

  Raymond Chandler (2002). “The Long Goodbye: A Novel”, p.87, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• A wonderful, warm, positive individual who exhibits the values that are prerequisite to a significant faculty post in higher education, I think that it is an absolutely extraordinary and bold career move that Darwin has made in leaving the Orchestra and embarking on the trajectory of a solo performer/educator. And what a marvelous thing it is for Detroit to be able to welcome home a successful native son - one in whom the community can take pride, and one who will serve as an inspiration to a younger generation of aspiring performers eager to make their mark in the world.

  David Cerone

  Inspiration, Moving, Home

  4 Copy quote

• Matt Mason must be declared the poet laureate of the Midwest! No other native son celebrates the overlooked America, its unsung citizens (from the anonymous poets to the part-time English teachers), and its expansive indigenous landscape, as well as he does. Mason's poetry is humorous when he wants to be quirky, heartbreaking when he wants to be eloquent, and though he moves effortlessly into other moods and geographies, he always returns to his first and most enduring love (and to what he knows best)-his homeland.

  Rigoberto Gonzalez

  Teacher, Humorous, Moving

  5 Copy quote

• Pennsylvania couldn't be prouder of our native son, Joe Biden from Scranton. No one knows us better than Joe.

  Bob Casey, Jr.

  Son, Pennsylvania, Biden

  "Transcript: Bob Casey". www.politico.com. August 26, 2008.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Angry Black White Boy is bananas! Actually, it's a banana split with razor blades in it. Adam Mansbach is the white Richard Wright, and Angry Black White Boy is our generation's Native Son.

  William Upski Wimsatt

  Son, Boys, Our Generation

  6 Copy quote

• During the years when the barely educated immigrants were being replaced by barely educated native sons, Hollywood . . . proved a more reliable, cost-effective means of securing world domination than any nuclear arsenal or diplomatic démarche.

  Frederic Raphael

  Mean, Son, Years

  4 Copy quote