Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, And Coming Of Age In The Bronx Quotes
"Chance was opportunity in the ghetto, and you had to be prepared for anything."
"For Jessica, love was the most interesting place to go and beauty was the ticket."
"God ain’t gonna have a pillow waiting for your ass when you fall landing from the sky."
"Life at Lourdes’s now moved in lockstep with the life of the street."
"‘I don’t know’ is gonna be your middle name."
"Let me tell you, I’m going to tell you one thing. One thing I don’t like about you."
"Why cry over spilled milk? You’re spilled already."
"George never forgot that his friends were his friends."
"You can’t read about it in books, and you can’t look at it in movies. I was born with something inside of me that says, ‘Go and get it.'"
"You have to have a lot of sleepless nights, but Lord behold, it’ll paint a picture."
"In a business full of deception and conning, George projected reliability and trust."
"I didn’t need a high school diploma to do what I did. I did what most people are too scared to do."
"Being taken out for shrimp scampi" became a nervous inside joke."
"Your friend is going to last forever," Cesar said. "Your girl ain’t."
"Live by the gun, die by the gun was their motto, Scarface their favorite movie."
"With the money, Jessica began to change—like I thought she would."
"It was a summer of cocaine, clubs, and hotel rooms, and thick, airless visits to the MCC."
"I would just like to say that I’m sorry for the crime that I’ve committed, and all I hope for is to return to my family and to my mother."
"Jessica’s voice surrounded him. In real time, she was rarely home—or was ignoring his phone calls."
"Jessica ran into John Gotti on the inmate elevator, and Gotti recognized her from her paralegal days."
"Every time I see his daughter I’m reminded of that."
"I’m going to jail for ten years. I’m chasing this opportunity."
"He offered up Cesar as his replacement: 'Let my boy go, he just got out, you can trust him.'"
"Coco reasoned that since the baby made her lose Cesar, the loss of the baby might bring him back."
"Jessica tried to comfort him on the telephone. George told her that he’d rather she were dead than free."
"If I was you, I wouldn’t get involved with any man. The word’s out."
"Jessica had spent Christmas at the MCC, awaiting transfer to a permanent facility."
"Ever since I was little I always wanted to have kids and be a father to them because I never really had a father."
"I’m going to tell you something that nobody knows about except Mighty may he rest in peace."
"I want a son so bad that I think I ain’t never going to have a little boy."
"If you don’t give me my kids I’ll have them from someone else."
"You won’t know until you stand in my shoes what my love is."
"I love you with all of my heart and soul, yet I was never faithful to you."
"I’m tired of my daughters having all these fake grandfathers!"
"I’m going to do the right thing this time, if not for me for my children."
"I guess it’s just that he don’t want people to think that he made me cry."
"She kissed her mother’s belly, then her hand, like a troubadour."
"I wish I could go back to the hospital. I feel like it is the only time I can really get a rest."
"Newborns—while they were new—had a way of mobilizing people."
"I’m not going to go down just because I got three children."
"Now that I had the baby out, I’m ready to look!"
"I’m Thankful For... My three pride and joy’s Mercedes Nikki & Nautica."
"That’s the only thing I done right. Had a son."
"I don’t want to get my hopes up, because when my hopes get up, they always come down."
"The pressure to buy things was always intense in the ghetto, but Christmas created a level of expectation that was unbearable."
"Use your mind to control all your body parts."
"He’s a motherfucker and I’m a bitch. We’re both the same and we’ll never change."
"Coco could barely breathe. She worried about Nautica’s asthma but didn’t dare open the door because of the rats."
"Lazy conversation from the sidewalk punched through the dead air."
"Sweat dripped onto the plastic mattress cover."
"She attributed this to the time that Nikki’s father, Kodak, had gone after her in Foxy’s courtyard."
"Coco finally dozed. Around three o’clock in the morning, she bolted up; she smelled smoke."
"The small city was boring, but it was pretty and quiet and the children had all kinds of space to play."
"The first, she circled: 'my child out the hospital.'"
"The array of scattered broken toy parts resembled children’s rooms in prisons."
"Coco planned to return to Troy and get settled."
"Jessica carried a clear plastic bag of crocheting."
"Mercedes carried her last few minutes in Rocco’s arms."
"Foxy couldn’t take the chaos and spent most nights at either Richie’s or Hernan’s."
"Pearl’s arrival stirred the somnolent building."
"The baby had so much gear that she required a small parade."
"Coco observed him closely when her children were in his orbit, and his affection toward her daughters seemed real."
"Coco still loved him absolutely, but felt foolish telling him."
"It's hard. There's no babysitting. I don't leave them just with anybody."
"I’m not a ho no matter what anyone says. I take care of what’s mine."
"I’m tired of acting scared of you or feeling like I have to stay shut from you."
"Probably if you was out here long enough I wouldn’t have cheated on you."
"I learned how to be a bitch from you, I learned how to fuck good and also cheat the way you did."
"I wasn’t a great girlfriend, but I feel that I was there for you."
"I want you to hear me out. You made me cry by the letter you wrote me."
"On the street, Coco usually defended Mercedes, so as not to shame her."
"I want it so that when the kids ask for something at the store, I can say yes."
"I want him to go, then when he leaves I cry."
"I been through so much in my life, if I can’t pass through this, something is wrong with me."
"That’s what I’m proud of. Whoever tasted my food always come back for more."
"If you don’t know me now, talk to my mother."
"I’m too young to be here. I’m a girl. I don’t have no kids."
"It's going to be a lot of work and nobody dies from hard work."
"I feel like I'm gonna go crazy if I have this baby, for real."
"I don’t know whether to congratulate you or say I’m sorry."
"I can do for myself. I don’t need to be with someone because of what they can do for me."
"Why are we so passive? We accept conditions that don’t benefit us."
"That spring, Rocco’s luck changed again. He’d fallen in love with Maya, a short religious missionary from the Philippines."
"But once Rocco had given up his romantic hope, he started speaking more freely with Maya."
"Around this time, Maya said, 'God interfered.'"
"In the third dream, Maya lay on a gurney in the hospital awaiting spinal surgery to make her taller."
"They held hands a long time before they kissed."
"Mercedes returned to school in time to graduate with her fifth-grade classmates."
"Coco did her best to keep her financial problems away from her children."
"Coco quickly combed her own hair out, smoothed it with hand lotion."
"Coco could see Mercedes in the crowd of students moving toward the exit; with the heels, she was a head taller than most everyone."
"Frankie no longer wanted to be a drug dealer; he never had."
"Coco tried to assure Frankie that his slow way was better."
"Coco could tell from Frankie’s posture beneath the field lights that the game wasn’t going well."
"La-Monté loved the street: some days, he never set foot outside the house."
"Jessica moved to a bigger apartment in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx."
"Jessica wanted Serena to have her own bedroom."
"Serena preferred to spend her summer days at her best friend Priscilla’s."
"The teenagers usually hung out with their friends on 'the bench'."
"Serena said, 'How do you know where the first kiss will lead?'"