"A very moving, intensely fascinating literary biography from an extraordinary writer. Thoroughly admirable candor and luminous stylistic precision; the artist as a young man and a memorable picture of an age."—William Gibson "Absolutely central to any consideration of black manhood. Delany’s vision of the necessity for total social and political transformation is revolutionary."—Hazel Carby "The Motion of Light in Water captures, as if in a time capsule, what it was like to be a young, gifted person of color coming to adulthood from roughly 1956 to 1966. Delany’s experiences show us that the ‘past’ is never as simple or as safe as some would like to believe."—American Literary History "The prose of The Motion of Light in Water often has the shimmering beauty of the title itself. This book is invaluable gay history."—Inches Magazine