One white man on the platform in South Carolina asked us where we were going--we had got off the train to get some fresh air and to dust the grit and dust out of our clothes. When we said Africa he lo...
On Stripping Bark from Myself(for Jane, who said trees die from it)Because women are expected to keep silent abouttheir close escapes I will not keep silentand if I am destroyed (naked tree!) someone...
Most times mens look pretty much alike to me.
Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't...
It's worse than unwelcome, said Samuel. The Africans don't even see us. They don't even recognize us as the brothers and sisters they sold.
It is the need to be remembered that has caused most of the trouble in the world,
In that story I gathered up the historical and psychological threads of the life my ancestors lived, and in the writing of it I felt joy and strength and my own continuity. I had that wonderful feelin...
If you was my wife, she say, I'd cover you up with kisses stead of licks, and work hard for you too.
If she come, I be happy. If she don't, I be content. And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose tolearn.
I think of the meaning of the word testimony. Originally it named the custom of two men holding each other's testicles in a gesture of trust, later to metamorphose into the handshake.
I remember one time you said your life made you feel so ashamed you couldn't even talk about it to God, you had to write it, bad as you thought your writing was. Well, now I know what you meant. And w...
First time I think about the world.What the world got to do with anything, I think. Then I see myself sitting there quilting tween Shug Avery and Mr ——. Us three set together gainst Tobias and his fly...
Because I know. Grown-up white men don’t want to pretend to be anything else. Not even for a minute.
When the ax came into the forest the trees said the handle is one of us.
I live a very secluded life, a very contemplative life and a very meditative one. That is my ideal life.
You saying God vain? I ast.Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
You know Shug will fight, he say. Just like Sofia. She bound to live her life and be herself no matter what.
Without money of one’s own in a capitalist society, there is no such thing as independence.
Why can’t Tashi come to school? she asked me. When I told her the Olinka don’t believe in educating girls she said, quick as a flash, They’re like white people at home who don’t want colored people to...
Who am I to tell her who to love? My job just to love her good and true myself. P. 237