Man! How many times have I stood on the rooftop of my broken-down building at night and watched the bulb-lit world below. Like somehow it's different at night, this my Harlem. There ain't no bright sunlight to reveal the stark naked truth of garbage-lepered streets. Gone is the drabness and hurt, covered by a friendly night. It makes clean the dirty-faced kids.

Down These Mean Streets (1967), prologue