Brown people wouldn’t speak to someone who was black. — Alex Haley

I know that statistically, it has been proven that there is a tremendous amount of black on black crime within the inner cities. — Alex Haley

Most of the things that are asked of me as a representative black person, would suggest never are we equal Americans. — Alex Haley

We don’t know: some little black boy or girl growing up in the inner city might grow up and cure cancer for all of us–if we let them do it. — Alex Haley

My fondest hope is that ‘Roots’ may start black, white, brown, red, yellow people digging back for their own roots. Man, that would make me feel 90 feet tall. — Alex Haley

Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you. — Alex Haley

You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life. — Alex Haley

There was a great deal of inbreeding between the Indians and the slaves. Genetically speaking, black people are some part black, some part European. — Alex Haley

When you clench your fist, no one can put anything in your hand. — Alex Haley

I don’t know anywhere in the world where there is not racism against somebody. — Alex Haley

The main thing you got to remember is that everything in the world is a hustle. — Alex Haley

It is the way of the world that goodness is often repaid by badness. — Alex Haley

Unless we learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. This is no longer merely an academic exercise, but may contain our worlds fate and our destiny. — Alex Haley

I tell younger writers that indeed it is devastating to be rejected. You feel like the bottom dropped out of your world. — Alex Haley

Is this how you repay my goodness––with badness?’ cried the boy. ‘Of course,’ said the crocodile out of the corner of his mouth. ‘That is the way of the world. — Alex Haley

If you go back to before mankind came out of the cave, there was hatred. — Alex Haley

He was always–I like to say of Malcolm–he was just simply electrical. Everything he did almost was dramatic, and it wasn’t that he was trying to be: it was just the nature of him. — Alex Haley

I am really quite proud of most of the people I ‘ know who have ‘made it,’ who do things to help people. — Alex Haley

I think from what I personally know, I am really quite proud of most of the people I know who have ‘made it,’ who do things to help people. — Alex Haley

The way to succeed is never quit. That’s it. But really be humble about it. … You start out lowly and humble and you carefully try to learn an accretion of little things that help you get there. — Alex Haley

Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help. — Alex Haley

In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. — Alex Haley

Every time an old person dies, it’s like a library burning down. — Alex Haley

My parents were teachers and they went out of their way to see to it that I had books. We grew up in a home that was full of books. And so I learned to read. I loved to read. — Alex Haley

Tying the little folks with the older folks is a great and powerful tool to preserve and to protect the family and the individual. — Alex Haley

When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth. — Alex Haley

I think most people when you say slavery tend to see a group of anonymous people pulling cotton sacks in great plantation fields, and that is largely true. — Alex Haley

The problem is to find the time to write. That’s why I go to sea. I couldn’t be happier than when at sea. — Alex Haley