It had been the longest time since she had had a rib-scraping laugh. She had forgotten how deep and down it could be. So different from the miscellaneous giggles and smiles she had learned to be content with these past few years.

I don't think one parent can raise a child. I don't think two parents can raise a child. You really need the whole village.

Literature, it seems to me, is wisdom.

When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.

When you gone to get married? You need to have some babies. It’ll settle you.' 'I don’t want to make somebody else. I want to make myself.

You your own best thing, Sethe. You are.

I don't want you to write about what you know, because you don't know anything. I don't want to hear about your boyfriend or your grandma... I'm getting a little tired of 'my life story as fiction'. Please don't tell me about your little life - is there nothing larger? More important?