Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.

I had a probing mind and an elephant memory.

New York is only 97 miles from Philadelphia but was the Big Time as no other American city has ever been.

Mom was the greatest influence of my childhood. She wanted to save me from the vice, lust, and drinking that was all about me.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

I could depend a lot on my shaking, though I never shimmied vulgarly and only to express myself.

My father came back one day and forced my mother to submit to him. He raped her, holding a knife.