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The men thought him harmless and appreciated that he did not try to steal their women; Freeman thought that there was little to choose from among the black middle-class chicks available and that risking the wrath of an insecure middle-class Negro, whose only available test of manhood was confined to the boundaries of his bed, was a waste of time and energy

Rose told people that her husband, fed up and stunned by the uselessness of his back and hands, tired of fried green tomatoes and grits, hungry beyond belief for the meat of some meat and not just its skin, furious at the price of coffee and the shape of his oldest girl’s legs, had just quit

Why can’t I just be a man who wants to be free, who wants to walk tall and proud on his own turf as a black man?

Some old people who didn’t slap the children for being slappable; who saved that strength in case it was needed for something important.

As long as they got that attitude, I don’t want nobody talking to me about coalitions with poor whites

But what they didn’t understand was that none of us was concerned about sitting down next to a white man and eating a hamburger

Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do. If I could paint, I’d paint that picture

A brother is as easily forgotten as an umbrella.

your thoughts, like those of the ignorant laity, are according to the flesh.

It is a writer's duty to betray his wife, his country and his friends if it serves his art.

"If we had ears that could hear," said Paul, "the air would be full of screams, groans, grunts and gasps.