"... [your grandfather] is dead, he never saw you, and he had a terrible life; he was defeated long before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him ... you can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger." "My Dungeon Shook", p. 18.

"...no-one's hand can wipe away those tears [my brother] sheds invisibly today, which one hears in his laughter and in his speech and in his songs. I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it." "My Dungeon Shook", p. 19.

"Your grandmother was also there, and no one has ever accused her of being bitter. I suggest that the innocents check with her. She isn't hard to find. Your countrymen don't know that she exists ... though she has been working for them...