The Harlem of my books was never meant to be real; I never called it real; I just wanted to take it away from the white man if only in my books. — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
If one lives in a country where racism is held valid and practiced in all ways of life eventually, no matter whether one is a racist or a victim, one comes to feel the absurdity of life....Racism generated from whites… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
American violence is public life, it's a public way of life, it became a form, a detective story form. So I should think that… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
Our highest ambition is to be included in the stream of American life, to be permitted to "play the game" as any other American;… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
It seemed so illogical to punish some poor criminal for doing something that civilization taught him how to do so he could have something… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
“Don't ever lean your whole weight on happiness, Jimmy. You fall too hard too hard when it gives away” — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
“For he reached the conclusion that everything he had ever seen, or had ever done, or had ever dreamed of doing would in the… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
When you get to mixing sex and religion, it will make anybody crazy. — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
Democracy is not tolerance. Democracy is a prescribed way of life erected on the premise that all men are created equal. — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
I would sit in my room and become hysterical about the wild incredible story I was writing. And I thought I was writing realism.… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
Growth is the surviving influence in all our lives. The tree will send up its trunk in thick profusion from land burned black by… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
Man cannot live without some knowledge of the purpose of life. If he can find no purpose in life he creates one in the… — Chester Himes Copy Share Image
