I was surprise to see the world didn't stop just cause my boy did..

Lord, I never seen blue hair on a black woman before or since. Leroy say you look like a cracker from outer space..

Got to be the worst place in the world, inside a oven. You in here, you either cleaning or you getting cooked..

I reckon that’s the risk you run, letting somebody else raise you chilluns..

I started writing it the day after Sept. 11. I was living in New York City. We didnt have any phone service and we didnt have any mail. Like a lot of….

You is kind. You is smart. You is important..

As children, we looked up to our maids and our nannies, who were playing in some ways the role of our mothers. They were paid to be nice to us, to lo….

I used to believe in em (lines). I don't anymore. They in our heads. Lines between black and white ain't there neither. Some folks just made those up….

The day your child says she hates you, and every child will go through the phase, it kicks like a foot in the stomach..

I've become one of those people who prowl around at night in their cars. God, I am the town's Boo Radley, just like in To Kill A Mockingbird..

Because ain’t that white people for you, wondering if they are happy enough..

She already got the blue dress on I ironed this morning, the one with sixty-five pleats on the waist, so tiny I got to squint through my glasses to i….

Frying chicken always makes me feel a little better about life..

Only three things them ladies talk about: they kids, they clothes, and they friends. I hear the word Kennedy, I know they ain’t discussing no politic….

It can be really powerful to write something when youre sad..

Some readers tell me, 'We always treated our maid like she was a member of the family.' You know, that's interesting, but I wonder what your maid's p….

Mother calls up the stairs to ask what in the world I'm typing up there all day and I holler down, 'Just typing up some notes from the Bible study. J….

The point is, I can’t tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how not to: Give in to the shame of being rejected and put your manuscript—or paint….

I hear Raleigh's new accounting business isn't doing well. Maybe up in New York or somewhere it's a good thing, but in Jackson, Mississippi, people j….

If singing was a color, it would've been the color of that chocolate..

I look deep into her rich brown eyes and she look into mine. Law, she got old-soul eyes, like she done lived a thousand years. And I swear I see, dow….