“Why did people manufacture trouble when there was already so much of it in the world?”

“Then if children make so much trouble, why do people have 'em?”

“I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.”

“They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did.”

“People said things they didn't mean all the time. Everybody else in the world seemed able to factor it in. But not Lena. Why did she believe the things people said? Why did she cling to them so literally? Why did she think she knew people when she clearly didn't? Why did she imagine that the world didn't change, when it did? Maybe she didn't change. She believed what people said and she stayed the same." (Lena, 211)”

“Why do people who already have so much get bitter about those who have a little more?”