Pity can purge us of hostility and arouse feelings of identification with the characters, but it can also be a consoling reassurance which leads us to believe that we have understood, and that, in pitying, we have even done something to right a wrong.
Richard WrightI didn't know I was really alive in this world until I felt things hard enough to kill for 'em.
Richard WrightIf a man confessed anything on his death bed, it was the truth; for no man could stare death in the face and lie.
Richard WrightIs not life exactly what it ought to be, in a certain sense? Isn't it only the naive who find all of this baffling? If you've a notion of what man's heart is, wouldn't you say that maybe the whole effort of man on earth to build a civilization is simply man's frantic and frightened attempt to hide himself from himself?
Richard Wright