Kathryn Stockett

“You are a beautiful person”

“If I'd played Mammy, I'd of told Scarlett to stick those green draperies up her white little pooper. Make her own damn man-catching dress. -Minny”

“We all on a party line to God...”

“Who knew paper and ink could be so vicious”

“A bitter seed was planted inside of me. And I just didn’t feel so, accepting, anymore.”

“I shake my head at my friend. “Not only is they lines, but you know good as I do where them lines be drawn.” Aibileen shakes her head. “I used to believe in em. I don’t anymore. They in our heads. People like Miss Hilly is always trying to make us believe they there. But they ain’t.”

“I guess we all get a little snippy when we're not feeling good.”

“ Things ain't never gone change in this town , Aibileen. We living in hell. Our kids is trapped.”

“It was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with”

“Shame ain't black, like dirt, like I always thought it was. Shame be the color of a new white uniform your mother ironed all night to pay for, white without a smudge or a speck a work-dirt on it.”

“Bosoms,” she announces, with a hand to her own, “are for bedrooms and breastfeeding. Not for occasions with dignity.”“Well, what do you want her to do, Eleanor? Leave them at home?”

“I'd rather spend the rest of my life right here in Aibileen's cozy little kitchen, having her explain the world to me. That's what I love about Aibileen, she can take the most complicated things in life and wrap them up so small and simple, they'll fit right in your pocket.”

“How tall are you, Constantine?” I asked, unable to hide my tears.Constantine narrowed her eyes at me. “How tall is you?”“Five-eleven,” I cried. “I’m already taller than the boys’ basketball coach.”“Well, I’m five-thirteen, so quit feeling sorry for yourself.”

“Minny,” I say last Sunday, “why Bertrina ask me to pray for her?”Minny say, “Rumor is you got some kind a power prayer, gets better results than just the regular variety.”

“Miss Skeeter say maybe don't spec nothing at all, that most Southern peoples is "repressed." If they feel something, they might not say a word. Just hold they breath and wait for it to pass, like gas.”

“We done something brave and good here....Maybe [we] don't want to be deprived a any a the things that go along with being brave and good. Even the bad.”

“A course we different! Everybody know colored people and white people ain't the same. But we still just people.”

“I used to be a good fighter." She looks out along the boxwoods, wipes off her sweat with her palm. "If you'd known me ten years ago..."She's got no goo on her face, her hair's not sprayed, her nightgown's like an old prairie dress. She takes a deep breath through her nose and I see it. I see the white-trash girl she was ten years ago. She was strong. She didn't take no shit from nobody.”

“Some things I just got to keep for myself.”

“I don't regret it, but I don't feel quite as lucky anymore.”

“Non so cosa dirle: so soltanto che non glielo dico. E so che neanche lei dice quello che vuole dire, ed è strano perché nessuno dice niente, eppure è come se ci parlassimo lo stesso.”

“Essendo alla ricerca di un futuro per me stessa, mi piace sapere le possibilità degli altri.”

“And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.”

“I guess that's when I understood what shame was and the color of it too. Shame ain't black, like dirt, like I always thought it was. Shame be the color of a new white uniform your mother ironed all night to pay for, white without a smudge or a speck a work-dirt on it”

“...and it's a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to have us a conversation.”

“Uvijek sam mislila da je ludilo mračan, ogorčen osjećaj, ali zapravo je osvježavajući i slastan ako pustiš da te preplavi.”

“Baby Girl,” I say. “I need you to remember everything I told you. Do you remember what I told you?”She still crying steady, but the hiccups is gone. “To wipe my bottom good when I’m done?”“No, baby, the other. About what you are.”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, down inside, the woman she gone grow up to be. A flash from the future. She is tall and straight. She is proud. She got a better haircut. And she is remembering the words I put in her head. Remembering as a full grown woman.And then she say it, just like I need her to. “You is kind,” she say, “you is smart. You is important.”

“Có lẽ đó chính là lúc tôi biết thế nào là tủi nhục và cả màu sắc của nó. Tủi nhục không có màu đen của bùn đất, như tôi vẫn nghĩ. Tủi nhục mang màu của bộ đồng phục trắng mẹ phải thức đêm thức hôm ủi quần áo thuê để có tiền mua, màu trắng không vướng một mảy, một hạt vết bẩn nào do lao động.”

“Tonight, I'll strip off all this armor and let it be as it was before..”

“Who knew heartbreak would be so goddamn hot.”

“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 never occurred to us to ask. It was everyday life. It wasn't something people felt compelled to examine. I have wished, for many years, that I'd been old enough and thoughtful enough to ask Demetrie that question. She died when I was sixteen. I've spent years imagining what her answer would be. And that is why I wrote this book.”

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

“President Kennedy’s assassination, less than two weeks ago, has struck the world dumb. It’s like no one wants to be the first to break the silence. Nothing seems important.”

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

“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 crying to her with yours—you can’t pay the light bill? Your feet are too sore? Remember one thing: white people are not your friends. They don’t want to hear about it. And when Miss White Lady catches her man with the lady next door, you keep out of it, you hear me?”

“I nursed a worthless, pint drinker for twelve years and when my lazy, life-sucking, daddy finally died, I swore to God with tears in my eyes I'd never marry one. And then I did.”

“Bosoms, are for bedrooms and breastfeeding. Not for occasions with dignity.”

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

“It's alive and well everywhere. Native Americans get a lot of crap in the West and south west. Muslims get treated like crap in just about every country in the Western world lately. Black people are mistreated in some parts of the US still. There are black people who are racist against white people. I've recently encountered someone who decided they couldn't tolerate my presence because I'm catholic, which according them makes me a pedophile, Satan worshipper and a whore. I've even encountered discrimination from people over seas for being American. Especially with my cousin's friends from England. They were rude to me the entire visit. They thought that I had to be an ignorant, xenophobic, racist slob just because I was from America and they spent most of the time trying to pick a fight with me to prove it. Racism exists, but don't take the comments you read online seriously. A good 80-90% of those are trolls looking for attention or a bored teenager who thinks it's funny to be an idiot.”

“He moves closer and leans down so I will look at him. And I feel sick, literally nauseated by the smell of bourbon on his breath. And yet I still want to fold myself up and put my entire body in his arms. I am loving him and hating him at the same time.”

“Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.”

“she clear her throat again and I'm wondering why she telling me all this. I'm the maid, she ain't gone win no friends talking to me.”

“And if your friends make fun of you for chasing your dream, remember—just lie.”

“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 painting, song, voice, dance moves, [insert passion here]—in the coffin that is your bedside drawer and close it for good. I guarantee you that it won’t take you anywhere. Or you could do what this writer did: Give in to your obsession instead.”

“Minny: "Isn't Mister Johnny gonna wonder how the foods so good?"Celia: "You're right..."*silence*Celia: "Maybe we should burn the chicken a little...?"Minny: "...Minny don't burn chicken.”

“Minny: "Eat my shit."Hilly: "Excuse me?"Minny: "I said eat...my...shit."Hilly: "Have you lost your mind?"Minny: "No ma'am, but you about to, cause you just did."*Minny eyes the pie*Hilly: "Did...What?"*Minny eyes pie again, Missus Walters gasping and laughing, Hilly eyes pie then gags and runs off*Missus Walters: "And you didn't just eat one, you ate TWO slices!"*Minny runs off*Missus Walters: "RUN, MINNY, RUUN!!"*She says this while laughing*”

“You're gon' have to say to your self, am I gon' believe what them fools say about me today?”

“I looked after that Dudley family for too long, over six years. His daddy would take him to the garage and whip him with a rubber hose-pipe trying to beat the girl out a that boy until I couldn't stand it no more.... I wish to God I'd told John Green Dudley he ain't going to hell. That he ain't no sideshow freak cause he like boys. I wish to God I'd filled his ears with good things like I'm trying to do with Mae Mobley. Instead, I just sat in the kitchen, waiting to put the salve on them hose-pipe welts.”

“Now I had babies confuse before. John Green Dudley, first word out a that boy's mouth was Mama and he was looking straight at me. But then pretty soon he calling everybody including hisself Mama and calling his daddy Mama too... Nobody worry bout it. Course when he start playing dress-up in his sister's Jewel Taylor twirl skirts and wearing Chanel No. 5, we all get a little concern.”

“He let out a long sorry sigh and I love that look on his face, that disappointment. I understand now why girls resist,just for that sweet look of regret....”