the prison system, inherently unjust and inhumane, is the ultimate expression of injustice and inhumanity in the society at large.

Things on the whole are faster in America; people don't stand for election, they run for office. If a person says he's sick, it doesn't mean regurgitating, it means ill. Mad means angry, not insane. Don't ask for the left-luggage; it's called a checkroom.

Knowing few children of my age with whom to compare notes, I envied the children of literature to whom interesting things were always happening.

the whole point of muck-raking, apart from all the jokes, is to try to do something about what you've been writing about. You may not be able to change the world but at least you can embarrass the guilty.

Picking other people's brains is an art worth cultivating.

In childbirth, as in other human endeavors, fashions start with the rich, are then adopted by the aspirant middle class with an assist from the ever-watchful media, and may or may not eventually filter down to the poor.

I have nothing against undertakers personally. It's just that I wouldn't want one to bury my sister.