Quotes from Colson Whitehead

Failing at everything except his fear of success. Passed over yet again. Archivist of slights. Everyone else's good fortune is food out of your mouth or a hug you never got from someone who should have loved you better. Halfway through lunch she realized glass ceilings allow glimpses up into another person's hell.

Do not love for they will disappear, do not trust for you will be betrayed, do not stand up for you will be swatted down.

According to Connelly, who heard the story from the nigger trader, Michael's former master was fascinated by the abilities of South American parrots and reasoned that if a bird could be taught limericks, a slave might be taught to remember as well. Merely glancing at the size of the skulls told you that a nigger possessed a bigger brain than a bird.

In America the quirk was that people were things. Best to cut your losses on an old man who won't survive a trip across the ocean.

the devil had long nimble fingers.

It was her grandmother talking that Sunday evening when Caesar approached Cora about the underground railroad, and she said no. Three weeks later she said yes. This time it was her mother talking.

He stopped hooking up with other people once he realized the first thing he did was calculate whether or not he could outrun them.

Entrepreneur?" Pepper said the last part like manure. "That's just a hustler who pays taxes.

it trains the kid in question to determine when people in the corner of his eye are talking about him and when they are not, a useful skill in later life when sorting out bona-fide persecution from perceived persecution, the this-is-actually-happening from the mere paranoid manifestation

He remained imperturbable and strange.

She gulped the air like water, the night sky the best meal she had ever had, the starts made succulent and ripe after her time below.

Color must suffice. It has brought us to this night, this discussion, and it will take us into the future. All I truly know is that we rise and fall as one, one colored family living next door to one white family. We may not know the way through the forest, but we can pick each other up when we fall, and we will arrive together.

Taken individually, the link was not much. But in concert with its fellows, a mighty iron that subjugated millions despite its weakness.

The cabins radiated permanence and in turn summoned timeless feelings in those who lived and died in them: envy and spite.

Makine burnundan soluyor, homurdan?yor, çal??maya devam ediyordu. Tek yapt?klar? pistonlar? hareket ettiren yak?t? deÄŸiÅŸtirmekti.

Cora hoped the musicians wouldn't think them rude for their inattention. It was unlikely. Playing their music as freemen and not chattel was probably still a cherished novelty. To attack the melody without the burden of providing one of the sole comforts of their slave village. To practice their art with liberty and joy.

Our government disdains a risk-reward game that millions of Americans play," Matt wrote, "then bails out Wall Street sharks who bet unfathomable sums. I can only conclude that this contradictory stance has little to do with the skills required for each pursuit. No, for some reason, lawmakers just don't like poker.

Her isim mal, nefes alan sermayeydi; etten ve kemikten kâr.

The sky was a sheet of slate but it was still warm, an August afternoon that let you know its kind was running out.

Hard work was the fundamental thing. For hard work did not allow time for marches.

Cora remembered Caesar's words about the men at the factory who were hunted by the plantation, carrying it here despite the miles. It lived in them. It still lived in all of them, waiting to abuse and taunt when chance presented itself.

Reassembling those fragments into confirmation of a shared darkness: If it is true for you, it is true for someone else, and you are no longer alone.

that's what you do when you take away someone's babies—steal their future. Torture them as much as you can when they are on this earth, then take away the hope that one day their people will have it better.

In Cora's shock, the world drained to gray impressions. The first color to return was the simmering brown-red of the soil in her family's plot.