“The daydream emerged as such an unbidden gift.”
“I’ve tried to give readers strong, vivid glimpses of [James Wright] in all the places he lived and traveled to in his sadly shortened but very full life.”
“I think anyone working on or in the archives of slavery is dealing with the supernatural.”
“William Wells Brown is one of the great American patron saints of dodginess.”
It was important to understand Toussaint Louverture’s importance as an icon in people’s hearts today, and for that I had to be in Haiti.
Recommend edits and hope that doesn’t lose you some friends.
Albert Murray went so far as to redefine race in terms of idiom — he sought to redefine ethnic difference as idiomatic difference.
I hope readers feel as if they know Vi by the end of the book, but also realize it’s all they know. Vi’s experience is not every black woman’s experience.
The Library of America volume, which reflects many findings made over the past year, will be the most important document for the study of Albert Murray’s life and work for many years to come.
“Murray and Ellison were present at the creation of public television.”