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

But Jude,' she would say, 'you knew me. All those days and years, Jude, you knew me. My ways and my hands and how my stomach folded and how we tried to get Mickey to nurse and how about that time when the landlord said...but you said...and I cried, Jude. You knew me and had listened to the things I said in the night, and heard me in the bathroom and laughed at my raggedy girdle and I laughed too because I knew you too, Jude. So how could you leave me when you knew me?

Racism will disappear when it's no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it'll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con.

Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war.

Deep, deep trouble. Can't rival the dead for love. Lose every time.

Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don't feel safe.

Political doesn't necessarily mean you have an agenda.