“As a protective mechanism, I developed a terse, cynical mode of speech that rebuffed those who sought to get too close to me. Conversation was my way of avoiding expression; my words were reserved for those times when I sat down alone to write. My face was always a deadpan or a mask of general friendliness; no word or event could jar me into a gesture of enthusiasm or despair.”

— Richard Wright, book Black Boy

Source: Black Boy (American Hunger) (1991), p. 278

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Richard Wright130

African-American writer 1908–1960

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