The Spook Who Sat by the Door Quotes

“Whites were fools and one had constantly to fight in order not to underestimate their power and danger, because a powerful and dangerous fool is not to be underestimated. Add the elements of hypocrisy and fear and one had an extremely volatile combination. It was a combination that could easily blow the country, even the world, apart. In”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“By now, Freeman knew his opponent. You'd be dangerous in an alley, thought Free man, but you hung yourself up with judo. Karate, or jujitsu, maybe, to slow me down with the chops and kicks. But there is just no way you can throw me in judo, white boy. He wondered whether to fight, or to continue on the defense. He looked at Calhoun, squatting Japanese-style on the other side of the mat, the hatred and contempt naked on his face. No, he thought, even if I blow my scene, I got to kick this ofay's ass. When you grab me again, whitey, you are going to have two handfuls of 168 pounds of pure black hell.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“The conditions they force us into cause the crime, then they use the crime to justify the conditions.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“everything would be swinging for the swinging black bourgeois bureaucrats, their high-yellow wives, their spoiled brat kids, and their white liberal mistresses.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“If we ever forget how to laugh we're finished.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“There's a whole world out there not getting schizo because they don't keep up with the Joneses. Things can be better without being white.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“Why do you have to label me? Why can't I just be a man who wants to be free, who wants to walk tall and proud on his own turf as a black man? Why can't it be as simple as that?”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“She wants me to tell her it will be all right if I make enough money. A man ought to be able to protect his woman, make her feel secure, but how long will it take for her to hate me as a man once I've traded in my balls? A showpiece spade is a showpiece spade, no matter how many times he gets his picture in the paper or how much bread he makes.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“Somebody has to try and change things.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“Senator Hennington, we all know that deceit, hypocrisy, duplicity are the everyday tools of our agents in the field. Much to their credit, the childlike nature of the colored mentality is ill-suited to the craft of intelligence and espionage.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door

“Dawson's one dead black generation and you might be another, but at least you won't be dying one inch at a time. No more of whitey's con man's integration games, freedom on the installment plan, interest collected daily. Freedom now! No more begging, pleading and silent suffering.”
― Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat by the Door