“ Mama wasn't dead...exactly. They all said she was, but when Elma was small, she seen Mama creep into her room at night, half-naked, head all bloodied red like when they found her by the well that day,… Shannon Celebi
“ Just five minutes, God, I chant like some hostage negotiator on the brink of a resolution. Five minutes alone. Please, please. Please. Shannon Celebi
“ Through career fumbles and life changes, she supported me. Through shattered dreams and hopes almost-realized, she supported me too. Shannon Celebi
“ Cuz I can count on one hand the men who’ve loved me, not in the Biblical sense—I don’t have enough digits for that—but who have truly loved me. Shannon Celebi
“ You’re saying, “What the hell am I gonna do with her?” You’re saying, “Shit, did she take her pills?” You’re saying, “Once upon a time, I used to have a little girl. Shannon Celebi
“ It wasn’t as if she’d thought it through or anything, how what a person wanted wasn’t always what they needed, and what a person needed might be the last thing they could ever want. Shannon Celebi
“ Let’s call my mood melancholy; let’s call it remembrance. Or maybe let’s call it longing. Yes, let’s call it longing instead. Shannon Celebi
“ Her mother always told her, “If he hits you, then you leave,” but Jack had never hit her, not with his fists. Shannon Celebi
“ She didn't tell him white folks couldn't love the same as coloreds. She couldn't love the same neither though, cuz more than half of her was white. Shannon Celebi
“ My sister and I are so close that we finish each other’s sentences and often wonder who’s memories belong to whom. Shannon Celebi
“ I think first of the children. What the hell am I supposed to tell them? Then I think about money, the house, all those things no widow will tell you ever crossed her mind. Shannon Celebi
“ When I was twenty-something, I asked my father, “When did you start feeling like a grownup?” His response: “Never. Shannon Celebi
“ Then the weeks rolled by in a sinister psych ward haze filled with white-coated orderlies and rocking whack-job patients torn straight from some old Jack Nicholson film, all anti-psychotic meds and pa… Shannon Celebi
“ Using one’s beauty was the only way a smart girl could get by, at least that’s how it was back then, though even for a smart girl there were really only three professions. You could be a nurse or a te… Shannon Celebi
