Today is always here,' said Sethe. 'Tomorrow, never.

...a habit that had become one of those necessary things for the night... surely a body-friendly if not familiar-lying next to you. Someone whose touch is a reassurance, not an affront or a nuissance. Whose heavy breathing neither enrages nor discusts you, but amuses you like that of a cherished pet.

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

Let your face speak what's in your heart. When my kids walk in the room my face says I'm glad to see them.

Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form.

I really think the range of emotions and perceptions I have had access to as a black person and as a female person are greater than those of people who are neither.... So it seems to me that my world did not shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger.

He said, 'Always. Always.