My father liked his Indian talk about the Great Spirit," Ridgeway said. "All these years late, I prefer the American spirit, the one that called us from the Old World to the New, to conquer and build and civilize. And destroy that what needs to be destroyed. To lift the lesser races. If not lift, subjugate. And if not subjugate, exterminate. One destiny by divine prescription--the American imperative.

— Colson Whitehead

Nature is a strong brand name. Everybody knew that. First thing, Nomenclature 101. Slap Natural on the package, you were golden. Those words on the package promise ease from metropolitan care, modern worries. And out here, if you opened things up, underneath the cellophane, what did you find inside? That fruit has splendid packaging, it has solid consumer awareness and is an animal favorite. Its seeds will be deposited in spoor miles away and its market dominance will increase. Splendid and beautiful petals are great advertising--the insects buzz and hop from all points every weekend to hit this flower-bed mall. Natural selection was market forces. In business, in the woods: what is necessary to the world will last.

— Colson Whitehead

New York City does not hold our former selves against us. Perhaps we can extend the same courtesy.

— Colson Whitehead

New York City in life was much like New York City in death. It was still hard to get a cab, for example.

— Colson Whitehead

Nowadays, Rosie the Riveter was a former soccer mom who had just opened her own catering business when Last Night came down and her husband and kids were eaten by a parking attendant at the local megatall’s discount-appliance emporium.

— Colson Whitehead

Now that she had run away and seen a bit of the country, Cora wasn't sure the document described anything real at all. America was a ghost in the darkness, like her.

— Colson Whitehead

Pain could be killed. Sadness could not, but the drugs did shut its mouth for a time.

— Colson Whitehead

Racial prejudice rotted one's faculties, he said.

— Colson Whitehead

Resentment was the hinge of her personality.

— Colson Whitehead

See chains on another person and be glad they are not your own--such was the good fortune permitted colored people, defined by how much worse it could be at any moment.

— Colson Whitehead