The interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world.

It seems to be typical of life in America ... that the second generation has no time to talk to the first.

When Americans look out on the world, they see nothing but dark and menacing strangers who appear to have no sense of rhythm at all, nor any respect or affection for white people; and white Americans really do not know what to make of all this, except to increase the defense budget.

It is hard for anyone under twenty to realise that death has already assigned them a number, which is going to come up one day.

People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen forget.

There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that *they* must accept *you*. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love.

There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.