Not so unusual, a father brings up a child with care and love only to loser her... plucked as it were, from his arms by an unseen hand -the hand of God.
-Part I, A Contract with God, p. 8

The tenement was like a passenger ship anchored in a sea of concrete.
Part I, The Super, p. 95

Most tenement dwellers remained holding fast to their beachhead, simply because thy had only just arrived from other more hostile places. They carried with them the tabernacle of a life force they hardly understood.
-Part II, Izzy the Cockroach and the Meaning of Life, p. 185

Believe me, Angelo! When you're drowning you don't ask a log floating in the water "How big?"
-Part II, The Black Hand, p. 237

How can I explain a... a might-have-been that might yet be?
Part II, Sanctuary, p. 274

Jacob, I've had marriage! What I've lived through...