Henry Louis Gates Jr.

“The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.”

“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.”

“If you want to change the world, you change the story.”

“No human culture is inaccessible to someone who makes the effort to understand, to learn, to inhabit another world.”

“But the irony is that the same sources that tell us that individuals are not prisoners of their genes are also telling us that groups are prisoners of their genes.”

“We're all genetic mongrels, and the sooner we all relax about that, the better.”

“And I say to my people, 'We have to ensure that all of our children are receiving the best education possible.'”

“You can't just legislate goodwill.”

“There are 40 million African-Americans in this country, and we're not all the same.”

“I've always been a nerd. I'm a weird, geeky guy.”

“I want to be the black Rod Serling.”

“My grandfather was a very elegant man. He was a janitor, but he was a very elegant janitor.”

“I think that the roots of racism have always been economic, and I think people are desperate.”

“A lot of people said I was a sellout, but I was just trying to get a job.”