Quotes from Jonathan Odell

Sometimes, when you look at a person, all you see is the tangle and you miss the weave.

The biggest thing the white man takes from us ain't our bodies. He takes our voices, too. He swallows up our yes's and no's like biscuits. But one day our yes's and no's will be so loud and strong they will lodge in his throat. He will have to spit them out to keep from choking. He will starve. There won't be nothing left of him except the shadows he casts on the deadest night.

Gran Gran recalled the bloodstained dress she had taken off the girl. It was made of blue silk muslin and finely embroidered, stitched by somebody who knew what they were doing. She hated having to toss the ruined garment into the stove. The smell had sickened her. Since she was a girl, she had never forgotten the odor of beautiful things set afire. Such a waste!

Calming ain't curing, is it, girl?

It's only when you don't want nothing from a body that you can see who they are," Polly had said. "It's strange, but when you don't want nothing, seems like you can give everything you got.

Master says the cholera is not a quality disease. The highborn don't come down with such.

No, now the domestic market is full up with other planters' troublesome slaves. Our only salvation is to scientifically breed a stable order of docile Negro. I've come up with three tenets: Isolation. Religion. Family...." Master Ben

Just remember this, girl, the water you hate is the water that's going to drown you.

That's the way it is with God, don't you reckon? He always around somewheres, if you can see His face or not. He's out there watching through the dark. Sometimes that's got to be enough, I suppose. Knowing He sees us even if we can't see Him back." -- Levi Snow

A flapping tongue puts out the light of wisdom.

You're like a lot of others, thinking everything come from the white man. Long as you believe that, you'll be blind to your own lights. You got to break the lie.