"Strangely, the houseboat offered me respite from racial tensions, and gave my son an opportunity to be around whites, who did not think of him as too exotic to need correction, nor so common as to be ignored." Prologue, p. 4

"I didn't become nervous until he left. Then the reality of Lady Day coming to my house slammed into me and started my body to quaking. It was pretty well known that she used heavy drugs, and I hardly smoked grass anymore. How could I tell her she couldn't shoot up or sniff up in my house?" Prologue, p. 6

"Nothing frightened my mother except thunder and lightning. I couldn't tell her that at 31 years old the whites in the lobby had scared me silly." Chap. 1 p. 25

"She was one of the group of black women who had raised their children, worked hard, fought for her principles and still...