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….

Im a Southerner - I never take satisfaction in touching a nerve..

Cause everbody care. Black, white, deep down we all do..

I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from comi….

I intend to stay on her like hair on soap..

Oh, it was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with. If I'd had a sister or a brother closer in age, I guessed that's what it would be like. Bu….

I may not remember my name or what country I live in, but you and that pie is something I will never forget..

Rule Number One for working for a white lady, Minny: it is nobody’s business. You keep your nose out of your White Lady’s problems, you don’t go cryi….

Everyone knows how we white people feel, the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family. Margaret Mitchell covered that. B….

it always sound scarier when a hollerer talk soft..

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

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….

I listened wide-eyed, stupid. Glowing by her voice in the dim light. If chocolate was a sound, it would've been Constantine's voice singing. If singi….

...and that's when I get to wondering, what would happen if I told her she something good, ever day?.

With other people, Hilly hands out lies like the Presbyterians hand out guilt, but it's our own silent agreement, this strict honesty, perhaps the on….

Mrs. Charlotte Phelan's Guide to Husband-Hunting, Rule Number One: a pretty, petite girl should accentuate with makeup and good posture. A tall plain….

That's all a grit is, a vehicle. For whatever it is you rather be eating..

I'm pretty sure I can say that no one in my family ever asked Demetrie what it felt like to be black in Mississippi, working for our white family. It….

Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person..

Having a separate bathroom for the black domestic was just the way things were done. It had faded out in new homes by the time the '70s and '80s roll….

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….