“If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat.”

“Let's not push it under the rug, or push it to the sidebecause, no matter what, it's going to keep coming up. Youknow, if you never deal with that dirt up under the carpet,it's going to get larger and larger, and it's going to keepcoming up.”

“SUCCESS is being able to come home, lay your head on the pillow and SLEEP in PEACE.”

“He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he don't never hardly beat them. He say, Celie, git the belt. The children be outside the room peeking through the cracks. It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's how come I know trees fear man.”

“Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof.”

“Lord love you,” Ms. Eulalie said, “but you tell lies like Ms. Franny sings: hard to listen to and even harder to believe.”

“Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.”