She say, Celie, tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.
It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one's children will become than for the children one's mature critics often are.
The original crime of niggers and lesbians is that they prefer themselves.
Never be the only one, except, possibly, in your own home.
Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise.
It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.
For in the end, freedom is a personal and lonely battle; and one faces down fears of today so that those of tomorrow might be engaged.
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.
The experience of God, or in any case the possibility of experiencing God, is innate.
Somewhere in the bible it say Jesus hair was like lamb's wool, I say. Well, say Shug, if he came to any of these churches we talking bout he'd have to have it conked before anybody paid him any attention. The last thing niggers want to think about they God is that his hair kinky.
The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one's people that has not previously been taken into account.
I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.
How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.
The sight of a Black nun strikes their sentimentality; and, as I am unalterably rooted in native ground, they consider me a work of primitive art, housed in a magical color; the incarnation of civilized, anti-heathenism, and the fruit of a triumphing idea.
It seems our fate to be incorrect (look where we live, for example), and in our incorrectness stand.
It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that's what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.
All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.
Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.