"No, there's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it, to keep on top of it, and to make it seem...well, like you. Like you did something, all right, and now you're suffering for it. You know?" - "Sonny's Blues", page 25.

"She was one of those eternally fragile women in their late thirties and once very pretty and the object of much attention in the road houses and beer parlors, who are now on Welfare and their entire lives rotate around that one day a month when they get their Welfare check". "1/3, 1/3, 1/3", page 71.

"I wish I were tall, or fat, or thin. I wish I had different eyes, different hands, a mother in the supermarket. I wish I were a man, a small boy, a girl in the choir. I'm a coveter, a Boston Blackie of the...