Countee Cullen

There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call 'the breaks.' In order for a writer to succeed, I suggest three things - read and write - and wait.

So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds, And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.

Your love to me was like an unread book.

I was reared in the conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage.

I have a rendezvous with life.

For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth.