“I don't know what to say to her. All I know is, I ain't saying it. And I know she ain't saying what she want a say either and it's a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to have us a conversation.”

“...and it's a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to have us a conversation.”

“Just cuz yer going there and I'm staying here," I say. "It don't mean we're parting.""No," she says and I know she understands. "No, it certainly doesn't.""I ain't parting from you again," I say, still looking at our fingers. "Not even in my head.”

“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.”

“Before I knowed it, I was saying out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.”

“It's no big secret that Nicole and I are no longer friends, ... I will not go into the details of what happened. All I will say is that Nicole knows what she did, and that's all I am ever going to say about it.”