"The archetypal Himes character is still one of the few literary images we have of the distinctly urban black make who has little, if any, relationship to the Deep South and its legacy of violence, injustice, and forced segregation."
Introduction, p. viii

"What defines an 'authentic' black voice? How can one create a literature about blackness without identifying with the underclass? Should one feel compelled to portray an experience that is not one's own? Should the black novelist promulgate a personal or a general politic?"
Ibid, p. x

"In the history of black literature, where motherhood has become as much of a device as blackness itself, this portrait is anarchic to the point of chaos: Himes betrays family secrets in a way that betrays the black world as whole."
Ibid, p. xvi

"I thought if they really wanted to give [the baby] a break they'd cut his throat...