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Colson Whitehead Quotes

The girl’s vulgarities reminded Cora of the plantation and the stream of oaths delivered by the hands when master’s eye was not on them. The small rebellion of servants everywhere.

Colson Whitehead

The girl’s vulgarities reminded Cora of the plantation and the stream of oaths delivered by the hands when master’s eye was not on them. The small rebellion of servants everywhere.

And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes--believes with all its heart--that it is their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothe...

Colson Whitehead

And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes--believes with all its heart--that it is their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothe...

Tags: america, cruelty, delusions, native americans, race relations, slavery, theft, united states, united states of america, us

About Author
Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and The Nickel Boys, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice. He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.

If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn't be in chains. If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. If the white man wasn't destined to take this new w...

Colson Whitehead

If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn't be in chains. If the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. If the white man wasn't destined to take this new w...

Tags: america, native americans, ownership, possessions, race relations, slavery, united states, united states of america, us, usa

The first time Caesar approached Cora about running north, she said no.

Colson Whitehead

The first time Caesar approached Cora about running north, she said no.

Tags: opening lines

The iron horse still rumbled through the tunnel when she woke. Lumbly's words returned to her: If you want to see what this nation is all about, you have to ride the rails. Look outside as you speed t...

Colson Whitehead

The iron horse still rumbled through the tunnel when she woke. Lumbly's words returned to her: If you want to see what this nation is all about, you have to ride the rails. Look outside as you speed t...

Tags: colson, cora, lumbly, railroad, underground, whitehead

I'm what the botanists call a hybrid, he said the first time Cora heard him speak, A mixture of two different families. In flowers, such a concoction pleases the eye. When that amalgamation takes its...

Colson Whitehead

I'm what the botanists call a hybrid, he said the first time Cora heard him speak, A mixture of two different families. In flowers, such a concoction pleases the eye. When that amalgamation takes its...

Tags: elijah, lander, mixed race, mixed races, railroad, underground, whitehead

We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-n...

Colson Whitehead

We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-n...

How's that training coming along, Griff? Good old Max says you're a natural.Turner frowned. Any time a white man asked you about yourself, they were about to fuck you over.

Colson Whitehead

How's that training coming along, Griff? Good old Max says you're a natural.Turner frowned. Any time a white man asked you about yourself, they were about to fuck you over.

Tags: blacks, boxing, race, race relations, training, whites

How to get through the day if every indignity capsized you in a ditch? One learned to focus one's attention.

Colson Whitehead

How to get through the day if every indignity capsized you in a ditch? One learned to focus one's attention.

People get rid of plenty when they move--sometimes they're changing not just places but personalities.

Colson Whitehead

People get rid of plenty when they move--sometimes they're changing not just places but personalities.

Tags: castoffs, furniture, interior decorating, life, lives, moving, personality

You swallow hard when you discover that the old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy, that the place where you first kissed so-and-so is now a discount electronics retailer, that where you bought this...

Colson Whitehead

You swallow hard when you discover that the old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy, that the place where you first kissed so-and-so is now a discount electronics retailer, that where you bought this...

Tags: change, consumerism, individuality, loss, memories, modern society, mom and pop stores, neighborhoods, new york city, retail

Sometimes a workweek will grind you into sand, pulverize you into particles.

Colson Whitehead

Sometimes a workweek will grind you into sand, pulverize you into particles.

Tags: weariness, work

The other patrollers were boys and men of bad character; the work attracted a type. In another country they would have been criminals, but this was America.

Colson Whitehead

The other patrollers were boys and men of bad character; the work attracted a type. In another country they would have been criminals, but this was America.

Tags: criminals, jobs, slave catchers, slavery, united states, united states of america, us, usa

They were treated to the same Randall hospitality, the travesties so routine and familiar that they were a kind of weather, and the ones so imaginative in their monstrousness that the mind refused to...

Colson Whitehead

They were treated to the same Randall hospitality, the travesties so routine and familiar that they were a kind of weather, and the ones so imaginative in their monstrousness that the mind refused to...

Two people, two hands, and two songs, in this case Big Shot and Bette Davis Eyes. The lyrics of the two songs provided no commentary, honest or ironic, on the proceedings. They were merely there and a...

Colson Whitehead

Two people, two hands, and two songs, in this case Big Shot and Bette Davis Eyes. The lyrics of the two songs provided no commentary, honest or ironic, on the proceedings. They were merely there and a...

Tags: life, music, pop culture, songs

In keeping with my family's affection for doomed product lines and hexed formats, we purchased a Betamax. The year before, we'd bought a TRS-80 instead of an Apple II, and in due course we'd unbox Mat...

Colson Whitehead

In keeping with my family's affection for doomed product lines and hexed formats, we purchased a Betamax. The year before, we'd bought a TRS-80 instead of an Apple II, and in due course we'd unbox Mat...

Tags: betamax, formats, intellivision, products, reality, trs 80, writers, writing

Improbable as it may be, the day still has a few indignities left. The day waters down indignity with frustration to make it last longer. Abomination, thy name is Subway. He cannot enter. They flood t...

Colson Whitehead

Improbable as it may be, the day still has a few indignities left. The day waters down indignity with frustration to make it last longer. Abomination, thy name is Subway. He cannot enter. They flood t...

Tags: commuting, difficulties, indignities, subway

The whites were right to be afraid. One day the system would collapse in blood. An insurrection of one. She smiled for a moment, before the facts of her latest cell reasserted themselves. Scrabbling i...

Colson Whitehead

The whites were right to be afraid. One day the system would collapse in blood. An insurrection of one. She smiled for a moment, before the facts of her latest cell reasserted themselves. Scrabbling i...

I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a sport centered around lying on your couch in a neurotic stupor all day, I'd...

Colson Whitehead

I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a sport centered around lying on your couch in a neurotic stupor all day, I'd...

Tags: athleticism, laziness, sports, unathleticism

The words from across the ocean were beaten out of them over time. For simplicity, to erase their identities, to smother uprisings.

Colson Whitehead

The words from across the ocean were beaten out of them over time. For simplicity, to erase their identities, to smother uprisings.