That’s what the Depression kind of showed, that hard work guaranteed you nothing. - Gloria Naylor

When I think of the American dream, that’s what I think of something that is manufactured, something that is ethereal, something that’s not quite there yet.

If you can just first maintain your own humanity, reify your own personal worth. You then flow into the system as an entity.

They are acceptable. The Colin Powells of America. It was such a phenomenon to me, that Colin Powell was so deeply loved by the American media and actually tabbed as becoming president. And when you look back at the man, you sort of understood what could be more American than someone who was willing to die for this country. You know, then then a man who was a general, then a man who was that conservative, you know, a man who was also fair skinned, which was extremely important and who had Republican leanings.