Quotes from Ernest J. Gaines

If I ain't nothing but trouble, you ain't nothing but Nothing.

My master jecked up my dress and gived my mistress the whip and told her to teach me a lesson. Every time she hit me she asked me what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown. She hit me again: what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown.

Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write.

That's man's way. To prove something. Day in, day out he must prove he is a man. Poor Fool.

The artist must be like a heart surgeon. He must approach something with sympathy, but with a sort of coldness and work and work until he finds some kind of perfection in his work. You can't have blood splashing all over the place. Things must be done very cleanly.

Then he spoke of James Joyce. He told about Joyce's family, his religion, his education, his writing. He spoke of a book called Dubliners and a story in the book titled "Ivy Day in the Committee Room." Regardless of race, regardless of class, that story was universal, he said.

good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man good by mr wigin im gon ax paul if he can bring you this sincely jefferson

The sky blue blue, Mr. Wiggins.

We ain't giving up," I said. "We done gone this far.

The heavier the burden, the longer they look at you. And Miss Julie looked at me a long, long time.

I had heard the same carols all my life, seen the same little play, with the same mistakes in grammar. The minister had offered the same prayer as always, Christmas or Sunday. The same people wore the same old clothes and sat in the same places. Next year it would be the same, and the year after that, the same again. Vivian said things were changing. But where were they changing?