Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.

At bottom, to be colored means that one has been caught in some utterly unbelievable cosmic joke, a joke so hideous and in such bad taste that it defeats all categories and definitions.

Hatred destroys the person who hates.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

If you think too far ahead, if you even try to think too far ahead, you'll never make it.

Tell me, he said, "What is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. what are they waiting for?" "Well […] I guess people wait in order to make sure of what they feel." "And when you have waited—-has it made you sure?

Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.