- By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with. - Duke Ellington
- Critics have their purposes, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what they did. - Duke Ellington, 1973
- America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description. - Ralph Ellison, 1952
- I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed. - Ralph Ellison, 1952
- The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one's own human failing. - Ralph Ellison, 1953
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