"I feel that I have known Irving Howe all my life, although I may have been in the same room with him five times and exchanged no more than a few sentences with him each time."
"In 1952, I was working as an organizer for Local 38 of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, ILGWU, which represented custom tailors and alterations workers in New York City."
"Over the years, I have written about various people I have known—friends, colleagues, etc. Each of us is unique, and I have tried to find and describe that uniqueness."
"A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing the bookshelves of the Brookline Public Library and came across a book called 'Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War.'"
"Reading the NY Times November 25th I came upon Clyde Haberman’s 'NYC' column. Its head: 'Naming a Senator Who Can Follow Clinton’s Tough Act.' And its subhead: 'A black Catholic lesbian would do nicely, especially one from upstate.'"