Quotes from Nella Larsen

It's easy for a Negro to 'pass' for white. But I don't think it would be so simple for a white person to 'pass' for colored.

I think," she said at last, "that being a mother is the cruellest thing in the world.

Have you ever stopped to think, Clare," Irene demanded, "how much unhappiness and downright cruelty are laid to the loving-kindness of the Lord? And always by His most ardent followers, it seems.

Clare Kendry cared nothing for the race. She only belonged to it.

Her reason partly agreed, her instinct wholly rebelled.

It was the most brilliant exhibition of conversational weightlifting that Irene had ever seen.

Incited. That was it, the guidingprinciple of her life in Copenhagen. She was incited to make an impression, a voluptous impression. She was incited to inflame attention and admiration. She was dressed for it, subtly schooled for it. And after a little while she gave herself up wholly to the fascinating business of being seen, gaped at, desired.

Children aren't everything. There are other things in the world, though I admit some people don't seem to suspect it

Faith was really quite easy. One had only to yield. To ask no questions. The more weary, the more weak, she became, the easier it was. Her religion was to her a kind of protective coloring, shielding her from the cruel light of an unbearable reality.

I'm human like everybody else. It's just that I'm so tired, so worn out, I can't feel anymore.