Democracy is not tolerance. Democracy is a prescribed way of life erected on the premise that all men are created equal.

- Chester Himes

Martyrs are needed to create incidents. Incidents are needed to create revolutions. Revolutions are needed to create progress.

- Chester Himes

There is an indomitable quality within the human spirit that cannot be destroyed; a face deep within the human personality that is impregnable to all…

- Chester Himes

I grew to manhood in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

- Chester Himes

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 any number of black wri…

- Chester Himes

I would sit in my room and become hysterical about the wild incredible story I was writing. And I thought I was writing realism. It never occurred to…

- Chester Himes

When you get to mixing sex and religion, it will make anybody crazy.

- Chester Himes

Growth is the surviving influence in all our lives. The tree will send up its trunk in thick profusion from land burned black by atom bombs. Children…

- Chester Himes

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