“Valtakunnanuutisten osastossa on artikkeli uudesta lääkkeestä nimeltä Valium, "joka auttaa naisia selviytymään arkipäivän haasteista". Luoja, voisin ottaa kymmenen tuollaista pientä pilleriä juuri nyt. (Skeeter)”

“Miss Skeeter say maybe don't spec nothing at all, that most Southern peoples is "repressed." If they feel something, they might not say a word. Just hold they breath and wait for it to pass, like gas.”

“Down in the national news section, there's an article on a new pill, the 'Valium' they're calling it, 'to help women cope with everyday challenges.' God, I could use about ten of those little pills right now.”

“But I do not know what to tell myself. Stuart needs "space" and "time," as if this were physics and not a human relationship.”

“I never once heard her say she gone leave Leroy, and Minny don't say things twice. When she do things, they done the first time.”

“Taking care a white babies, that’s what I do, along with all the cooking and the cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning.”

“She already got the blue dress on I ironed this morning, the one with sixty-five pleats on the waist, so tiny I got to squint through my glasses to iron. I don’t hate much in life, but me and that dress is not on good terms.”