Paule Marshall

And in a way, this was how he had come to see his death, as a series of small ones taking place over the course of his life and leading finally to the main event, which would be so anti-climatic, so undramatic (a sudden violent seizure in his long abused heart, a quick massive flooding of the brain) it would go unnoticed. It was the small deaths occurring over an entire lifetime that took the greater toll.

Sometimes a person has to go back really back-to have a sense an understanding of all that's gone to make them-before they can go forward.

I'll have to as you say take a stand do something toward shaking up that system. ... Despair ... is too easy an out.