184 Quotes by Victor LaValle

Before September 11, the skinny, jittery black guy made security think one thing: drug mule. But after the attacks, security only cared about bombs. So it was the Arab guys, the Puerto Ricans and Indians, even white men, that got searched. I was too dark to make people worry on a plane. Still caused fear in elevators.

...a person never really knows how he or she will react at those worst moments, do they? Each of us hopes to be brave, to be kind, to be heroic. But how often do we get the chance to find out which it'll be?

I wish I’d been more like my father,” Black Tom said. “He didn’t have much, but he never lost his soul.

I wish I’d been more like my father,” Black Tom said. “He didn’t have much, but he never lost his soul. I wonder if I could ever get mine back.

Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.

Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.

Some people act like it’s a sign of weakness if you want to belong, but I think most human beings yearn to find at least one open door in their lifetime.

Josephine didn't mean to be so dismissive, but it came surprisingly easily. Then, almost as quickly, she questioned many of the judgments she'd made in her life. Mental patients can't be intelligent, junkies can't be articulate, and so on. But really, honestly, how many did she actually know?

And you can fool yourself if you’re raised in New York. Think that somehow your birthplace alone makes you cosmopolitan. But it isn’t true. We’re rubes too.