It made me love talk that sought answers to questions that could help nobody, that could only keep alive in me that enthralling sense of wonder and awe in the face of the drama of human feeling which is hidden by the external drama of life.

Make up your mind, Snail! You are half inside your house, And halfway out!

It had been only through books-at best, no more than vicarious cultural transfusions-that I had managaed to keep myself alive in a negatively vital way. Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.

there are times when life's ends are so raveled that reason and sense cry out that we stop and gather them together again before we can proceed

Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed...It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality.

I did not know if the story was factually true or not, but it was emotionally true [...].

Don't leave inferences to be drawn when evidence can be presented.