“It was a fine cry - loud and long - but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

“O Lord, Sula,” she cried, “girl, girl, girlgirlgirl.”It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

“the loss pressed down on her chest and came up into her throat. it was a fine cry -- loud and long -- but it had no bottom and no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

“if they put an iron circle around your neck I will bite it away”

“I welcomed the circling sharks but they avoided me as if knowing I preferred their teeth to the chains around my neck my waist my ankles”

“Hunched down in the small bright room Nel waited. Waited for the oldest cry. A scream not for others, not in sympathy for a burnt child, or a dead father, but a deeply personal cry for one's own pain. A loud, strident: 'Why me?' She waited.”

“Each night, without fail, she prayed for blue eyes. Fervently, for a year she had prayed. Although somewhat discouraged, she was not without hope. To have something as wonderful as that would take a long, long time.”