A Red Death Quotes

“A man who is already insane was frightening enough, but when he goes crazy...”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“Mouse was the truest friend I ever had. And if there is such a thing as true evil, he was that too.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“Of course, I always knew that there was no real difference between the races, but still, it was nice to see an example of that equality.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“didn’t even believe in history, really. Real was what was happening to me right then. Real was a toothache and a man you trusted who did you dirt. Real was an empty stomach or a woman saying yes, or a woman saying no. Real was what you could feel. History was like TV for me, it wasn’t the great wave of mankind moving through an ocean of minutes and hours. It wasn’t mankind getting better either; I had seen enough murder in Europe to know that the Nazis were even worse than the barbarians at Rome’s gate. And even if I was in Rome they would have called me a barbarian; it was no different that day in Watts. Chaim wanted to make it better for me and my people. Chaim was a good man; better than a lot of people in Washington, and a lot of black people I knew. But he was dead. He was history, as they say, and I was holding my gun in the dark, being real.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“He had an educated way of talking. I could have talked like him if I’d wanted to, but I never did like it when a man stopped using the language of his upbringing. If you were to talk like a white man you might forget who you were.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“We are all of us trapped, Mr. Rawlins. Trapped in amber, trapped in work. If you can’t pay the rent you die.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“One thing you have right is how bad the Reds are. They want to take the whole world and enslave it. They don’t believe in freedom like Americans do. The Russians have been peasants so long that that’s the way they see the whole world—from chains.” It was strange talk, I thought, a white man lecturing me about slavery. “Yeah, some folks learn how to love their chains, I guess.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“remember thinking that those white people were just as afraid of the law as any colored man. Of course, I always knew that there was no real difference between the races, but still, it was nice to see an example of that equality.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“Police and government officials always have contempt for innocence; they are, in some way, offended by an innocent man.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“But that was a long time ago, an’ you should be over it by this time. But, you know, it’s just that some men be wantin’ sumpin’ from women; sumpin’ like a woman shouldn’t have no mind of her own. It’s like when LaMarque want me t’tell’im that he’s the strongest man in the world if I let him carry my pocketbook. I tell’im what he wants t’hear ’cause he just a baby. But you’s a man, Easy. If I lied t’you it would be a insult.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“The money was stolen, but nobody was looking for it and I had convinced myself that I was safe. I had forgotten that a poor man is never safe.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“She got a momma, a sister, that boy Willie she always be talkin’ ’bout. She got somebody. Let them pay the rent. We in business, Mr. Rawlins. Business is the hardest thing they make. Harder than diamonds.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“You prob’ly ain’t never heard’a him ’cause he’s a com’unist. They don’t teach ya ’bout com’unists.” “So how do you know, if they don’t teach it?” “Lib’ary got its do’ open, man. Ain’t nobody tellin’ you not to go.” There aren’t too many moments in your life when you really learn something. Jackson taught me something that night in John’s, something I’d never forget.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“Two of the deacons were just boys. I guess they had to join a gang one way or another, and the church won out.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death

“You're a smart one, eh, Rawlins?"

"Yeah", I said. "So smart that I'm here with you worryin' 'bout my liberty, my money, and my life. If was any more smarter I wouldn't even have to breathe.”
― Walter Mosley, A Red Death