One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.

I don't believe that there is any true friendship without a bond of honor, and the honor in friendship is the respect you give the other that she also gives you.

I fell into shame like a suicide throws herself into a river. (253)

I think I would have died if there hadn't been the women's movement.

Don't go taking that gospel stuff seriously. It's nice to clean you out now and then, but it ain't for real. It's like bad whiskey. Run through you fast and leave you with pain.

One of the strengths I derive from my class background is that I am accustomed to contempt.

It ain't that you get religion. Religion gets you and then milks you dry. Won't let you drink a little whiskey. Won't let you make no fat-assed girls grin and giggle. Won't let you do a damn thing except work for what you'll get in the hearafter. I live in the here and now.