“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”

— Langston Hughes, "Harlem", Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951

About Langston Hughes

1901 – 1967

American poet and writer of the Harlem Renaissance, known for poems such as 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' and 'Harlem'.

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

“For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.”

“There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

“Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them.”

“Public Disputes warm the Imagination, whet the Industry, and strengthen the natural Abilities.”

“Where we find a difficulty we may always expect that a discovery awaits us. Where there is cover we hope for game.”

“For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”