“… but you cant get all hung up on details when you are trying to survive…”

“Listen baby, Muver love you. Muver not dumb. Listen baby: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.Thas the alphabet. Twenty- six letters in all. Them letters make up words. Them words everything.”

“I bite my fingernails till they look like disease, pull strips of my skin away. Get Daddy's razor out cabinet. Cut cut cut arm wrist, not trying to die, trying to plug myself back in. (111)”

“I say I drownin' in river. She don't look me like I'm crazy but say, If you just sit there the river gonna rise up drown you! Writing could be the boat carry you to the other side. (97)”

“Mother to SonWell, son, I'll tell you:Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor -Bare.But all the timeI'se been a'climbin' on,And reachin' landin's,And turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the darkWhere there ain't been no light.So boy, don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the steps'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't you fall now -For I'se still goin', honey,I'se still climbin',And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.- Langston Hughes (112)”

“I know you are, but you gotta push”

“How is something a memory if you never forgit?”