“A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.”

“The old woman was the kind who would not cut down a large old tree because it was a large old tree.”

“But this tree in the yard-this tree that men chopped down...this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up it's stump-this tree lived!It lived! And nothing could destroy it.”

“She was the kind of girl who climbed the tallest tree and cried to be let down, but she was also the kind of girl who would scramble and jump down on her own as soon as someone went in for the ladder.”

“I know what every colored woman in this country is doing... Dying. Just like me. But the difference is they dying like a stump. Me, I’m going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world.”

“Caring about him was like trying to love a tree stump - a cold, mean-spirited paternalistic tree stump. With fungus.”