The peculiar fascination which the South held over my imagination and my limited capital decided me in favor of Atlanta University so about the last of September I bade farewell to the friends and scenes of my boyhood and boarded a train for the South. – James Weldon Johnson

A poet ought not to pick natures pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

When I have a terrible need of — shall I say the word — religion. Then I go out and paint the stars. – Vincent Van Gogh