Class Assignment: Favorite Quote

For my African American Literature class today, we had a very fun assignment. Bring in your favorite quote from one of the pieces we're read. Now, we've gone through four books and several short stories, so I had a LOT to choose from. However, I eventually selected this one, from Oxherding Tale by Charles Johnson...

"Is that fair!" I touched him, then pulled back my hand; it was like grabbing a boa constrictor seconds after it swallowed a family of rats. "Your duty is to destroy, I understand that! There must be destroyers. But you sound like a philosopher! A modern philosopher--the mechanic who analyzes the propositions of madmen and sages with the same impartiality, refusing to pass judgement!" I shouted again, "Is it fair that you destroyed my friend--'only following orders,' you'll plead, and I can appreciate that, the dancing of Shiva from birth to death, the cosmic drama where all creatures are sacrificed, regardless of their personal dreams, to a God moving mysteriously, struggling to spin a well-made story, making some of us walk-ons, or extras--maybe Negroes in the New World were only hired for the crowd scenes--but I ask you, Horace, you, the holy torpedo, the mercenary of Brama, I put it to you, do you approve?"

"You still don't see hit," he said. "Ah approves everythin'. Ah approves nothin'."

~Charles Johnson, Oxherding Tale