In my mother's church, everybody read the Bible and it was mostly about music. My mother had the most beautiful voice I have ever heard in my life. She could sing anything - classical, jazz, blues, opera. And people came from long distances to that little church she went to - African Methodist Episcopal, the AME church she belonged to - just hear her.

You been gone too long, Sula. Not too long, but maybe too far.

Lay my head on the railroad line. Train come along; pacify my mind.

If we had no language we'd have nothing.

Write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.

The body is ready to have babies. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it.

I don't think a female running a house is a problem, a broken family. It's perceived as one because of the notion that a head is a man.