“You can't make me do nothing but die!”

“Goddamnit, look! We live here and they live there. We black and they white. They got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't. It's just like livin' in jail.”

“At the age of twelve I had an attitude toward life that was to endure, that was to make me seek those areas of living that would keep it alive, that was to make me skeptical of everything while seeking everything, tolerant of all and yet critical. The spirit I had caught gave me insight into the suffering of others, made me gravitate toward those whose feelings were like my own, made me sit for hours while others told me of their lives, made me strangely tender and cruel, violent and peaceful. ”

“You asked me questions nobody ever asked me before. You knew that I was a murderer two times over, but you treated me like a man...”

“... a knowledge of how to live was a knowledge of how to die.”

“Make up your mind, Snail! You are half inside your house, And halfway out!”

“The thing to do was to act just like others acted, live like they lived, and while they were not looking, do what you wanted.”