But it’s something, when you think about it, how many babies were brought into those places, with rats as big as cats, roaches the size of mice, splinters the size of a man’s finger, and somehow survived it. You don’t want to think about those who didn’t; and, to tell the truth, there’s always something very sad in those who did, or do.

that’s why so many people, especially most white people, are so lost.

Joseph is coldly, systematically, stealing from the docks, and Frank is stealing from the garment centre and they sell the hot goods in Harlem, or in Brooklyn. They don’t tell us this, but we know it.

For the children, the airport appears to be merely a more challenging way of playing house.

She is confronting the age of sorrow. She is confronting torment.