And while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown I awoke one afternoon to find that my first northern winter had set. - Ralph Ellison

"New York!" he said. "That's not a place, it's a dream."

Every serious novel is, beyond its immediate thematic preoccupations, a discussion of the craft, a conquest of the form, a conflict with its difficulties and a pursuit of its felicities and beauty.

America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's "winner take nothing" that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many— This is not prophecy, but description.