"Get angry, get hating angry and you won't be scared. What have you got now? Nothing. What will you ever have? Nothing.... Unless you cop for yourself!" Prologue.

"The lampposts made a big shadow on the stoops. I couldn't help wishing I'd run away in the daytime," Chapter 1, p. 4.

"Sometimes when you have too much, the good gets lost within and you have to look very hard. But when you have a little, then the good does not have to be looked for so hard," Chapter 2, p. 9.

"I could feel a thin hot wetness cutting itself down my leg. I had been so ashamed of being so damned scared that I had peed on myself," Chapter 4, p. 30.

"Momma smiled at the thing woman; she didn't smile back—one smile wasted. I stuck my tongue out at her; she didn't see it—one stuck-out tongue wasted," Chapter...