618 Quotes by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The tree of our family was parted - branches here, roots there - parted for their lumber.

So there was love, and specifically the desire to give to someone who had given so much to me. But too there was a need to liberate myself from old models. I did not want a good woman behind me, beside me, in front of me, or proximate to me in any of the old and maudlin ways.

The rhyme pad was a spell book - it summoned asphalt elementals, elder gods, and weeping ancestors, all of whom had your back.

Dad called it "enlightenment" but to me, it just felt lonely.

The earthquake cannot be subpoenaed. The typhoon will not bend under indictment. They sent the killer of Prince Jones back to his work, because he was not a killer at all. He was a force of nature, the helpless agent of our world's physical laws.

I came to see the streets and the schools as the arms of the same beast. One enjoyed the official power of the state while the other enjoyed its implicit sanction. But fear and violence were the weaponry of both.

The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.

What did I know of loving anything, beyond a longing, beyond being biased in one woman's direction.

It's like summer wear the world out, and by October everyone is just ready for a nap