“So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time.”

“Please God, please suh, don't let him love nobody else but me. Maybe Ah'm is uh fool, Lawd, lak dey say, but Lawd, Ah been so lonesome, and Ah been waitin', Jesus. Ah done waited uh long time.”

“Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.”

“In the cool afternoon the fiend from hell specifically sent to lovers arrived at Janie's ear. Doubt.”

“Everytime Ah see uh patch uh roses uh somethin' oversportin' theyselves makin' out they pretty, Ah tell 'em 'Ah want yuh tuh see mah Janie sometime.' You must let de flowers see yuh sometimes, heah, Janie?”

“Nanny's words made Janie's kiss across the gatepost seem like a manure pile after a rain”

“Long before the year was up, Janie noticed that her husband had stopped talkin to he rin rhymes.”