Empathy is what separates human beings from teenage boys.

Nearly everyone could be undone by an old woman's displeasure.

Doubt is the big machine. It grinds up the delusions of women and men.

The person you are (in total, at that moment in time) is what creates the story you're writing. It's infused in every piece of punctuation, in the plot, in the most minor character who crosses the page. It's all your voice.

I have my teachers who tell me what to do. I'm not quite old enough yet to be truly independent.

Jesmyn Ward is an alchemist. She transmutes pain and loss into gold. Men We Reaped illustrates hardships but thankfully, vitally, it's just as clear about the humor, the intelligence, the tenderness, the brilliance of the folks in DeLisle, Mississippi. A community that's usually wiped off the literary map can't be erased when it's in a book this good.

The poor aren't defeated. We're domesticated.