There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable which we call 'the breaks.' In order for a writer to succeed, I suggest three things - read and write - and wait.

Cullen entered Harvard in 1925 to pursue a masters in English about the same time his first collection of poems Color was publiCountee Cullend. In 1940 Cullen married Ida Mae Robertson whom he had known for ten years. Cullen competed in a poetry contest sponsored by Opportunity.

(He pronounced his name "Coun-tay" not "Coun-tee. ").