[Obama is ] creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom . . . [He is] the man for this time.

I wish I’d a knowed more people. I would of loved ‘em all. If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more

You need a whole community to raise a child. I have raised two children, alone.

Every now and then she looked around for tangible evidence of his having ever been there. Where were the butterflies? the blueberries? the whistling reed? She could find nothing, for he had left nothing but his stunning absence.

...the change was adjustment without improvement.

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

In fact her maturity and blood kinship converted her passion to fever, so it was more affliction than affection. It literally knocked her down at night, and raised her up in the morning, for when she dragged herself off to bed, having spent another day without his presence, her heart beat like a gloved fist against her ribs. And in the morning, long before she was fully awake, she felt a longing so bitter and tight it yanked her out of a sleep swept clean of dreams.