When they kept you out it was because you were black; when they let you in, it is because you are black. That's progress?

It's strange how men feel they have the right to criticize a woman's appearance to her face.

in a way it doesn't matter whether you open doors or close them, you still end up in a box.

Marriage accustomed one to the good things, so one came to take them for granted, but it magnified the bad things, so they came to feel as painful as a grain in one's eye. An open window, a forgotten quart of milk, a TV set left blaring, socks on the bathroom floor could become occasions for incredible rage.

rain is one thing the British do better than anybody else.

I'd discovered you never know yourself until you're tested and that you don't even know you're being tested until afterwards, and that in fact there isn't anyone giving the test except yourself.

Habit is a good thing for the human race. ... You have to spend so much energy just getting through the day when you have no habits that you don't have any left for productive labor.