Jealousy we understood and thought natural... But envy was a strange, new feeling for us. And all the time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred. The Thing to fear was the Thing that made her beautiful, and not us.

So this is what insanity is. Not goofy behavior, but watching a sudden change in the world you used to know.

It had been the longest time since she had had a rib-scraping laugh. She had forgotten how deep and down it could be. So different from the miscellaneous giggles and smiles she had learned to be content with these past few years.

I don't think a female running a house is a problem, a broken family. It's perceived as one because of the notion that a head is a man.

For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event.

This word "LOVE" - discredited, "clicheed" - can be restored and love, the instinct, the impulse to care for somebody in the hope that somebody will care for you - plus our language, the language, a language - is about all we have. With everything else going on, this is what makes us, what keeps us human.

Today is always here,' said Sethe. 'Tomorrow, never.