“Countée Cullen's chief problem has been that of reconciling a Christian upbringing with a pagan inclination. His life so far has not convinced him that the problem is insoluble.”

A wry self-portrait of faith set against appetite and classical feeling · Third-person biographical note, Caroling Dusk, 1927

• Desire
• Faith
• Self Knowledge

“In spite of myself I find that I am actuated by a strong sense of race consciousness. This grows upon me, I find, as I grow older, and although I struggle against it, it colors my writing, I fear, in spite of everything I can do.”

Admits that race consciousness returns even when he tries to write past it · Remark, 1926, as quoted by Stephen H. Bronz

• Identity
• Race
• Writing

“They tend to hurl this poet into the gaping pit that lies before all Negro writers, in the confines of which they become racial artists instead of artists pure and simple.”

Warns that a solely racial pose can trap a writer short of the universal · Review of Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues, The Dark Tower, 1926

• Artists
• Criticism
• Race