This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.

If you don't have the ability or encouragement to use yourself in a physical way, you could become just another talking head. And talking heads run things. That's part of the reason why we're in such a sad state as a planet, because it's all about thinking, and thinking has led to a lot of aggrandizement - taking over [resources] and figuring out how you can steal and leaving people and the planet in an impoverished state.

It's better to have your blackness taken away than to stand and lie about who you actually are.

No song or poem will bear my mother's name. Yet so many of the stories that I write, that we all write, are my mother's stories.

When life descends into the pit I must become my own candle Willingly burning my self To light up the darkness around me.

The earth is for joy, and dancing is a big part of that. And you dance with nature. Nature is always dancing. If you're not harassing it and killing it and mutilating it, nature is dancing. That's what the leaves are doing when the wind blows through them. We live in a magical wonderful universe. And just spoil it while thinking we can at some point go to heaven or some other planet.

Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly.