...she thought of him as a person who did not have a normal spine, but had instead, a firm reed of goodness.

Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I'm Jamaican or I'm Ghanaian. America doesn't care.

There are many different ways to be poor in the world but increasingly there seems to be one single way to be rich.

Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.

Sometimes she worried that she was too happy. . . And her joy would become a restless thing, flapping its wings inside her, as though looking for an opening to fly away.

Ifemelu thought about the expression "sweet girl." Sweet girl meant that, for a long time, Don had molded Ranyinudo into a malleable shape, or that she had allowed him to think he had.

A book did not qualify as literature unless it had polysyllabic words and incomprehensible passages.

Ma? I think you have the spirit of husband-repelling. You are too hard, ma, you will not find a husband. But my pastor can destroy that spirit.

femelu could not understand this, her mother’s ability to tell herself stories about her reality that did not even resemble her reality

They never said “I don’t know.” They said, instead, “I’m not sure, ” which did not give any information but still suggested the possibility of knowledge.

One day, I will look up and all the people I know will be dead or abroad.

Success is just around the corner from difficulty.

It is known all over the world that there are no secrets in the ghetto and as long as you keep those secrets, you may keep your life.

The human face is, after all, nothing more nor less than a mask.

Charlie Huston, who showran the first season [of Powers], is a novelist, and likes to internalize fiction as a novelist does.

Art is nothing more than the shadow of humanity.

The most intractable problem today is not pollution or technology or war; but the lack of belief that the future is very much in the hands of the individual.

Do what you love and don't focus on money - life's too short.

The very process of living is a continual interplay between the individual and his environment, often taking the form of a struggle resulting in injury or disease.

There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds.

You beat Cancer by how you live.