....I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.

Here's to new beginnings," Stuart says and raises his bourbon. I nod, sort of wanting to tell him that all beginnings are new.

They say it's like true love, good help. You only get one in a lifetime.

She dumb.” I sigh. “But she ain’t stupid.

it always sound scarier when a hollerer talk soft.

Rule Number One for working for a white lady, Minny: it is nobody’s business. You keep your nose out of your White Lady’s problems, you don’t go crying to her with yours—you can’t pay the light bill? Your feet are too sore? Remember one thing: white people are not your friends. They don’t want to hear about it. And when Miss White Lady catches her man with the lady next door, you keep out of it, you hear me?

I'd cry, if only I had the time to do it.