{"author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr.","total_quotes":26,"quotes":[{"text":"He now realized that right and wrong were intertwined notions. His arms could not differentiate between just and unjust causes. They only knew that they were empty.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american","contemporary","fiction","new-adult","novel","patches-of-grey","roy-pickering"],"id":2329,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"Was love ever easy for anyone? If less complicated, would this make it less appreciated? Perhaps love was difficult for good reason. Perhaps everything on God’s green earth was the result of a flawless plan, even that which seemed most muddled.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american","contemporary","fiction","novel","patches-of-grey","roy-pickering"],"id":20645,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"If Audrey sensed what he was contemplating, her silence did not let on. He turned from the window and found her looking at him with a flawless poker face. It may have been attentiveness and curiosity to hear what he would say next, or perhaps she was expecting from him what women throughout the ages, often against their better judgment, had expected of men.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american-fiction","amazon","contemporary","diverse-characters","fiction","kindle-scout-nominee","literary","new-york-city","novel","roy-l-pickering-jr","upmarket-commercial-fiction","women-s-issues"],"id":59459,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"There were many tomorrows to be lived through his children. He could only hope that they would face them more courageously than he had, that his mistakes would serve as warning signs rather than crutches to lean on.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american","contemporary","fiction","new-adult","novel","patches-of-grey","roy-pickering"],"id":69589,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"Tony's concern disintegrated. He could not understand C.J.'s determination to court death on a daily basis. Or maybe he did understand, and this was what caused his frustration. So many found the same solution his brother had. Selling death to their own people. The money was a difficult lure to resist. Additionally, the fear elicited from their hard core posturing proved nearly as addictive. They demanded to be heard, even though it didn't seem they had much to say. Perhaps the futility and smallness that characterized their lives was too overwhelming to articulate in any manner other than a primitive, incoherent scream. Maybe it was inevitable that those who felt they had no stake in society would opt to destroy it.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["drugs","gangs","patches-of-grey","roy-pickering","street-violence","urban"],"id":101516,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"Nothing felt better to him than the act of waiting for her. As long as he believed it wasn’t in vain, he was able to justify his presence.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american","amazon","contemporary","diverse-characters","fiction","kindle-scout","literary","mainstream","new-york-city","novel","poc","roy-l-pickering-jr","upmarket-commercial-fiction","women-s-issues"],"id":107275,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"It was just a word. It took nothing from him. It made him feel only as low as he allowed himself to feel. His own brother used it in conversation habitually. But not in the same way - filled with malice, overflowing with insult. He couldn't tear his eyes away, shook with lust for retribution. Six little letters making one huge statement. NIGGER.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american","contemporary","fiction","novel","patches-of-grey","roy-pickering"],"id":113537,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"She had a pretty good idea what Tony was seeking. He couldn't look at her without seeing her mother, and father, and brother. He needed to know for certain that she would never share their point of view, one which saw nothing beyond the color of his skin. \t\t Janet wanted to abolish his doubts but could not, for the simple reason that she did see Tony's color. The genesis of their love was physical attraction, and his complexion had lured her the same as hers undoubtedly pulled him. It was not his blackness that she fell in love with, but it was a part of him, and therefore, a part of what she loved.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["color","patches-of-grey","race","roy-pickering"],"id":138689,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"...The locale did not make him think of her, nor did most things. He felt no negativity about the time they had spent together, but simply did not dwell on it much. She had been a seat filler, memorable as the smiling face of a beautiful girl in the window of a passing train, inspiring a fleeting moment of joy and promise, immediately forgotten with the opening of that day’s newspaper.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american","amazon","contemporary","diverse-characters","fiction","kindle-scout","literary","mainstream","new-york-city","novel","poc","roy-l-pickering-jr","upmarket-commercial-fiction","women-s-issues"],"id":162079,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."},{"text":"And although he recognized that tenderness was not the same as passion, and certainly not equivalent to love, for now it seemed to him a suitable substitute.","author":"Roy L. Pickering Jr.","tags":["african-american","amazon","contemporary","diverse-characters","fiction","kindle-scout","literary","mainstream","new-york-city","novel","poc","roy-l-pickering-jr","upmarket-commercial-fiction","women-s-issues"],"id":164531,"author_id":"Roy+L.+Pickering+Jr."}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":26,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}