Quotes from Tonya Bolden

And she envied Caleb's knowledge. She only had bits and pieces, scraps and rags. He had a whole cloth.

It's how I keep my mind from becoming mush. Learn and think. Think and learn.

Not now. On this night so divine, Mariah did no pleading. The only thing on her heart was gratitude. But she did have one request. She wanted to stay awake, wanted to see what freedom looked like, felt like at midnight, then at the cusp of dawn.

If only they were in a different time, a different place. Far away from war, from hate. She would not be in torment, and he would not be a bystander to her pain.

For the first time in her life Mariah knew the benefit, the balm of not keeping blistering memories padlocked in her mind.

Don't let just any man have your grace.' Patience was spinning flax. 'Mariah, you keep yourself for a good man.' Mariah could hear the wheel rattle and whirl, rattle and whirl. 'A good man. Like your pa. On top of him being good, he needs to be a true love.' 'How to know a true love?' 'When you get beyond the moonstruck stage and you hit a rough patch, but you can't stay mad at him for long.

Dead can't do us no harm,' said Effie. 'Seen plenty o' haints in my time. All on the playful side. None never done me harm. All my hurts and pains come from the livin'.

If goodness was like mint... ...It'll spread if it ain't hedged, her ma explained, then told her how mint roots roam under the soil and send up shoots inches, feet away, making more roots, and those roots then roam, send up shoots, making new roots. And up comes more mint. If I don't wall it off, mint will take over the garden. We'll wind up with no corn and cabbages, no beans and tomatoes, no peppers, no goosefoot, no squash, no okra.