“At home they thought of white people as a vague but powerful entity--like the forces that control the weather, that capable of destruction, that hidden from view.”

“Half of what’s wrong with people today is that they ain’t got no place to go that makes them peaceful. I don’t reckon you got no place like that.”

“You ought to go now before she wakes up,” Hattie said. She handed her daughter to Pearl. I’m in the floor, she thought.”

“I wonder if the brass understands that people are getting killed.”

“His pain was his most precious and secret possession, and Six held on to it as fiercely as a jewel robbed from a corpse.”

“Six wasn't sure religion was any more than a lot of people caught up in a collective delirium that disappeared the minute they stepped out of the church doors and onto the street.”

“Pride brought down a lot of folks. One of these days you gon' have to turn around and look at whatever it is you running from.”