“Woman! do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!”

“Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don't know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit. It? I ask. Yeah, It. God ain't a he or a she, but a It. But what do it look like? I ask. Don't look like nothing, she say. It ain't a picture show. It ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you cam feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found it.”

“Do you ever wonder whether people would like you more or less if they could see inside you?”

“Nothing is ever as it seems if you are looking inside someone else's viewpoint.”

“I look at you, and I see the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth. Inside and out you are beautiful. I know you better than anyone else could ever know you, because I can see into your thoughts and read your memories. The very light in you, our tremendous capacity for loving, humbles me.”

“Folks look around, what do you see and what do you have in your hand or in your house? Don't you ever underestimate what is in your hand or in your house, it doesn't matter how little it is.”