“Don't look to a husband or a child or a friend or your family to make you happy. It is not within their capacity to do so.”

“You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.”

“Don't expect to know your husband inside and out within a month of marriage. For a long time you will be making discoveries; file them for future reference.”

“When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses. ”

“Is being burnt a requisite for the making of art? Personally, I don't think it is. But art is poultice for a burn. It is a privilege to have, somewhere within you, a capacity for making something speak from your own seared experience.”

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." and so in you the child your mother lives on and through your family continues to live... so at this time look after yourself and your family as you would your mother for through you all she will truly never die.”