I only debate my equals. All others, I teach.

I wanted to grab his stupid ears and smash his stupid head against the door until his stupid brains leaked out. Instead, I did nothing.

I understood that my family was rich in love but would probably never own the land my father, John, dreamed of owning. My mother, Willie Ella Mays Clarke, was a washerwoman for poor white folks in the area of Columbus, Georgia where the writer Carson McCullers once lived.

All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.

Right, well, he'd been sick for a while and his nurse said to him, 'You seem to be feeling better this morning,' and Isben looked at her and said, 'On the contrary,' and then he died.

After John received his degree, he joined DSV, a venture capital firm in Princeton, and when I had my third child, I stopped working, ... We loved Philadelphia and had a great old house in Center City, but we decided to give Princeton a try. At first, I was a bit confused after the move. I wasn't sure what to do. The girls were now five, three, and six months, and they really grew up here. Now, I love Princeton. It's a great place to raise children, and John has his own venture capital firm, Cardinal Partners, on Nassau Street.