The determination to outwit one's situation means that one has no models, only object lessons."

"An identity is questioned only when it is menaced, as when the mighty begin to fall, or when the wretched begin to rise, or when the stranger enters the gates, never, thereafter, to be a stranger."

"It is impossible to pretend that you are not heir to, and therefore, however inadequately or unwillingly, responsible to, and for, the time and place that give you life -- without becoming, at very best, a dangerously disoriented human being."

Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.

"To have been where we were, to have paid the price we have paid, to have survived, and to have shaken up the world the way we have is a rare journey."