“Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.”

“There was nowhere I could go that wouldn't be you.”

“Tessie allowed Milton to press his clarinet to her skin and fill her body with music. At first it only tickled her. But after a while the notes spread deeper into her body. She felt the vibrations ...”

“It was amazing how it worked: the tiniest bit of truth made credible the greatest lies.”

“Planning is for the world's great cities, for Paris, London, and Rome, for cities dedicated, at some level, to culture. Detroit, on the other hand, was an American city and therefore dedicated to m...”

“Judge Woodward envisioned the new Detroit as an urban Arcadia of interlocking hexagons. Each wheel was to be separate yet united. This dream never quite came to be. Planning is for the world's grea...”

“Be gentle and humble in heart.”

“I know!" he growls back, his voice guttural. I wonder if all of his fire kind have eyes like his. Eyes that burn and smolder.”

“in Detroit, in July of 1967, what happened was no less than a guerrilla uprising.The Second American Revolution.”

“In Detroit, we all talked the race game. It is a way of life.”

“If a man hasnt found something he will die for, he isnt fit to live.”

“The industrial part of Detroit is really the most interesting side, otherwise its like the rest of the United States, ugly and stupid.”