If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.
Ralph EllisonEverywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own goodโonly /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop?
Ralph EllisonThe clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch up with the time. In the street a siren howled.
Ralph Ellison