Quotes by Colson Whitehead

“it means what it say," Ethel said. "It means that a Hebrew may not enslave a Hebrew. But the sons of Ham are not of that tribe. The were cursed, with black skin and tails. Where the Scripture conde...”

“What a world it is, Cora thought, that makes a living prison into your only haven. Was she out of bondage or in its web: how to describe the status of a runaway?”

“White man trying to kill you slow every day, and sometimes trying to kill you fast. Why make it easy for him? That was one kind of work you could say no to.”

“From the trunk of their scheme, choices and decisions sprouted like branches and shoots.”

“A slow hour passed, distracted by intermittent drops of moisture from above, as if the sky were conducting a feasibility study on the implications of rain. Of committing to a course of action.”

“Nature is a strong brand name. Everybody knew that. First thing, Nomenclature 101. Slap Natural on the package, you were golden. Those words on the package promise ease from metropolitan care, mode...”

“Racial prejudice rotted one's faculties, he said.”

“I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a sport centered around lying on your couch in a neurotic stupor all day, I...”

“Cora blamed the people who wrote it down. People always got things wrong, on purpose as much as by accident.”

“You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now.”

“Maybe we become New Yorkers the day we realize that New York will go on without us.”

“New York City does not hold our former selves against us. Perhaps we can extend the same courtesy.”

“Cherish your old apartments and pause for a moment when you pass them. Pay tribute, for they are the caretakers for your reinventions.”

“The city knows you better than any living person because it has seen you when you are alone.”

“As if these daily humiliations and sacrifices mean something, are tallied by the ones who keep the books. Tomorrow we pick up where we left off. Sleep tight. Sleep deep. Sleep the sleep of the succ...”

“I'm here because I was born here and thus ruined for anywhere else, but I don't know about you.”

“Why should anyone else have it easy. Spoken like a true New Yorker.”

“A society manufactures the heroes it requires.”

“New York City in life was much like New York City in death. It was still hard to get a cab, for example.”

“Mark Spitz had met plenty of the divine-retribution folks over the months. This was their moment; they were umbrella salesmen standing outside a subway entrance in a downpour. The human race deserv...”