The Ways of White Folks Quotes

“Bow down and pray in fear and trembling, go way back in the dark afraid; or work harder and harder; or stumble and learn; or raise up your fist and strike-but once the idea comes into your head you’ll never be the same again. Oh, test tube of life! Crucible of the South, find the right powder and you’ll never be the same again-the cotton will blaze and the cabins will burn and the chains will be broken and men, all of a sudden, will shakes hands, black men and white men, like steel meeting steel!”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks

“THEY WERE PEOPLE who went in for Negroes—Michael and Anne—the Carraways. But not in the social-service, philanthropic sort of way, no. They saw no use in helping a race that was already too charming and naive and lovely for words. Leave them unspoiled and just enjoy them, Michael and Anne felt. So they went in for the Art of Negroes—the dancing that had such jungle life about it, the songs that were so simple and fervent, the poetry that was so direct, so real. They never tried to influence that art, they only bought it and raved over it, and copied it. For they were artists, too.”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks: Stories

“This, the dream and the dreamer, wandering in the desert from Hopkinsville to Vienna in love with a streetwalker named Music.…”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks: Stories

“No," said Oceola simply. "This is mine. . . . Listen! . . . How sad and gay it is. Blue and happy -- laughing and crying. . . . How white like you and black like me. . . . How much like a man. . . . And how much like a woman. . . . Warm as Pete's mouth. . . . These are the blues. . . . I'm playing.”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks

“Cora was like a tree—once rooted, she stood, in spite of storms and strife, wind, and rocks, in the earth.”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks: Stories

“Why did white folks think you could live on nothing but art? Strange! Too strange! Too strange!”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks: Stories

“the ways of white folks,”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks

“As a final touch, one of the tabloids claimed to have discovered that the great Lesche was a Negro—passing for white!”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks

“Too much is enough! And sometimes enough is too much! I’m tired, I tell you.”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks

“But I guess I won’t go into that. Since I’ve made up my mind to live in the white world, and have found my place in it (a good place), why think about race any more? I’m glad I don’t have to, I know that much.”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks

“Anne burst out, “You know, I think I’d like to paint you.” Michael said, “Oh, I say now, that would be lovely! He’s so utterly Negro.”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks: Stories

“and”
― Langston Hughes, The Ways of White Folks: Stories