Quotes from Tayari Jones

Mr. Hamilton, I do need her." He shook his head. "You don't even know yet what need is.

I pray a prayer of protection for you every single night.

If you were to ask me what it smelled like, I couldn't answer any more than you would know what to say if someone asked you to describe the fragrance of coffee. It was the scent of my mother and it couldn't be broken down into parts.

What happens to you doesn't belong to you, only half concerns you. It's not yours. Not yours only. —CLAUDIA RANKINE

In my mind, I picture us at our same kitchen table, in our same comfortable house, passing quiet words of truth. Georgia, this is a love letter. Everything I do is a love letter addressed to you.

I had been in kindergarten when I figured out that I wasn't pretty. That is the worst thing about being a little kid; nobody is shy about letting you know these things.

This is the face of a man who loved too hard

knew that things like this happen to people, but by people, I didn't mean us.

He could have, but he didn't. No sense worrying about things that didn't happen." I took her hand. "I'm not even worried about what did happen. This is a fresh day. A fresh start.

But neither of us closed our eyes against the immeasurable dark of that silent night.

You don't write a book for a market, a publisher, or an agent; you write it because your heart calls you to write it." — @tayari

Spike Lee's School Daze and Sidney Poitier's To Sir with Love

only a woman can truly welcome a man back home, wash his feet, and fix his plate.

love is the enemy of sound judgement, and occasionally this is in service of god.

When you have seen your mother shattered, there's no putting her back together. There will always be seams, chipped edges, and clumps of dried glue. Even if you could get her to where she looks the same, she will never be stronger than a cracked plate.

My girlfriend at the time wasn't keen on meeting Celestial; even she could tell from the way I pronounced her name that my feelings were more than friendly.

she hit upon the three things she says a woman needs: Jesus, a job, and a husband.

She told me that since I was very small, I have embraced my appetites. "You always run toward what you want. Your father always tries to break you of this, but you are just like him, brilliant but impulsive and a tiny bit selfish. But more women should be selfish," she said. "Or else the world will trample you.

Is motherhood really optional when you're a perfectly normal woman married to a perfectly normal man?

what loss has taught me of love. Our house isn't simply empty, our home has been emptied.

But with my mother and Celestial, I was actually split down the middle. Olive brought me into this world and trained me up to be the man I recognized as myself. But Celestial was the portal to the rest of my life, the shiny door to the next level.

What I know is this: they didn't believe me. Twelve people and not one of them took me at my word.

Who is to blame, then, when everyone is innocent? And what is the value of blame at all?

If you can't count it, measure it, or gauge it with science, it didn't happen.