Women lose their lives not knowing they can do something different..." from Two or Three Things i Know For Sure

Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.

The worst thing in the world was the way I felt when I wanted us to be like the families in the books in the library, when I just wanted Daddy Glen to love me like the father in Robinson Crusoe. (209)

People don't do right because of the fear of God or love of him. You do right because the world doesn't make sense if you don't.

I need you to do more than survive. As writers, as revolutionaries, tell the truth, your truth in your own way. Do not buy into their system of censorship, imagining that if you drop this character or hide that emotion, you can slide through their blockades. Do not eat your heart out in the hope of pleasing them.

That was what gospel was meant to do - make you hate and love yourself at the same time, make you ashamed and glorified.

My heart broke all over again. I wanted my life back, my mama, but I knew I would never have that. The child I had been was gone with the child she had been. We were new people, and we didn't know each other anymore. I shook my head desperately.