Quotes from Zora Neale Hurston

Those who love us never leave us alone with our grief. At the moment they show us our wound, they reveal they have the medicine. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" is a perfect example of this.

Cudjo meetee de people at de gate and tells dem, "You see de rattlesnake in de woods?" Dey say, "Yeah." I say "If you bother wid him, he bite you. If you know de snake killee you, why you bother wid him? Same way wid my boys, you unnerstand me. If you leave my boys alone, dey not bother nobody!

The heart of man is an ever empty abyss into which the whole world shall fall and be swallowed up.

it. Ah know Ah ain't." "Ah did think about it one day," Hicks said dreamily, "but then Ah forgot it and ain't thought about it since then." "No wonder things ain't no better," Joe commented. "Ah'm buyin' in here

The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.

Kossola was born circa 1841, in the town of Bantè, the home to the Isha subgroup of the Yoruba people of West Africa. He was the second child of Fondlolu, who was the second of his father's three wives. His mother named him Kossola, meaning "I do not lose my fruits anymore" or "my children do not die any more.

The Fon of Dahomey was foremost among those African peoples who resisted the suppression. Not only was the internal enslavement of their prisoners perceived as essential to their traditions and customs, the external sell of their prisoners afforded their kingdom wealth and political dominance. To maintain a sufficient "slave supply," the king of Dahomey instigated wars and led raids with

I found out too that you are bound to be jostled in the crowded street of life. That in itself need not be dangerous unless you have the open razors of personal vanity in your pants pocket. The passers-by don't hurt you, but if you go around like that, they make you hurt yourself.

It was inevitable that she should accept any inconsistency and cruelty from her deity as all good worshipers do from theirs. All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshiped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshiped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.(138-139)

Dis ain't no business proposition, and no race after property and titles. Dis is uh love game. Ah done lived Grandma's way, now Ah means tuh live mine.

De object wuz tuh git dere. So Ah got up on de high stool lak she told me, but Pheoby, Ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere.

Some of dese mornin's and it won't be long, you gointuh wake up callin' me and Ah'll be gone.

Sometimes God gits familiar wid us womenfolks too and talks His inside business. He told me how surprised He was 'bout y'all turning out so smart after Him makin' yuh different; and how surprised y'all is goin' tuh be if you ever find out you don't know half as much 'bout us as you think you do. It's so easy to make yo'self out God Almighty when you ain't got nothin' tuh strain against but women and chickens.

wasn't ready to think of colored people in

She hated the old woman who had twisted her so in the name of love. Most humans didn't love one another nohow, and this mislove was so strong that even common blood couldn't overcome it all the time.

When you hungry it is painful but when de belly too full it painful too.

It's uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo' papa and yo' mama and nobody else can't tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.

But it was night, it stayed night.

Not every skunk in the world rates a first-class killing. Hanging is too good for some folks. They just need their behinds kicked.

If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don't keer if you die at dusk. It's so many people never seen de light at all. Ah

Through this publication, Barracoon extends our knowledge of and understanding about the experiences of Africans prior to their disembarkation into the Americas. Like a relic pulled up from the bottom of the ocean floor, Barracoon speaks to us of survival and persistence. It recalls the disremembered and gives an account for the unaccounted. As an expression of the feelings and attitudes of one who survived the Middle Passage, it is rare in the annals of history.

She sent her face to Joe's funeral, and herself went rollicking with the springtime across the world.

not enough to make a flea a waltzing jacket.

I am striving desperately for a toe-hold on the world.