“There was an end to weeping. Mourning, however, ebbed and surged but never ceased flowing.”

“But there are times when a tree can no longer withstand the pain inflicted on it, and the wind will take pity on that tree and topple it over in a mighty storm. All the other trees who witnessed the evil look down upon the fallen tree with envy. They pray for the day when a wind will end their suffering. I pray for the day when God will end mine.”

“Dying ain't important. Everyone does that. What's important is how well you do your living.”

“It ain't how long you know somebody that means anything. It's what that person mean to you in your heart.”

“He took the box but did not avail himself of a tissue. She understood. Sometimes it was comforting to feel the wetness of grief's tears on your face.”

“Just because you're bron to someone, it doesn't mean you belong to them.”

“Stagolee was, undoubtedly and without question, the baddest nigger that ever lived. Stagolee was so bad that the flies wouldn't even fly around his head in the summertime, and snow wouldn't fall on his house in the winter. He was bad, jim. ”