"My father ... rarely smiled. Then I did not know why, but now I do know that it was overwork, under-nourishment and t…"

"My father was miserably treated by the mining company, but he had imbibed the false humility and meekness that the op…"

"Of what was Herndon "guilty"? He had led a demonstration of unemployed Negro and white workers to City Hall, had been…"

"• Let the future historian, if he will, add beauty of expression and the charm of polished diction to this plain, unp…"

"the farmer takes Jill down the well & all the king's horses & all the king's men can't put that baby together again c…"

"death is where jimi hendrix is, where our revolution ended up."

"There has always been something wrong wif the tesses. The tesses paint a picture of me wif no brain. The tesses paint…"

""I'm tired," I says. She says, "I know you are, but you can't stop now Precious, you gotta push." And I do."

"this country might have been a pio neer land once. but. there ain't no mo indians blowing custer's mind with a differ…"

"I am almost reluctant to pray for Mrs. Peter. She was so good, so pure, that while joining in the solemn supplication…"