"There was no mention in the Gleaner, however, of an event which took place during the early hours of the morning in the rural parish of St. Ann. Nineteen-year-old Cedella Marley had given birth to her first child." p. 49

"Ciddy's heart shriveled, or something inside it that had long been forgotten seemed to have withered and died in the space of an instant." p. 114

"Why, Nesta asked, had his mother and Toddy brought them to this awful place? 'Fe cheaper rent,' she snapped, 'suh me cyan feed four mout' an' send yuh ta school an' save fe better conditions!' "p. 120

"Nesta had by now 'busted 'im double figures' (reached the age of ten) and thus fallen prey to the personal apprehensions, prejudices of color and parental perturbations that afflict many adolescent Jamaicans, giving them often acute anxiety problems and even ulcers." p. 102

"And it somehow didn't...