Now. Is this life or not?I be so calm.If she come, I be happy. If she don’t, I be content.And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.

It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period

But it ain't easy, trying to do without God even if you know he ain't there, trying to do without him is a strain

Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance and holler, just trying to be loved.

And I try to teach my heart not to want nothing it can't have.

Sofia the kind of woman no matter what she have in her hand she make it look like a weapon.

Anyhow, I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgitful, and lowdown.

It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's how I come to know trees fear man.

Hard times' is a phrase the English love to use, when speaking of Africa. And it is easy to forget that Africa's 'hard times' were made harder by them.

Do our dreams carry messages from the great beyond, sent by the people we have lost, or are they a reflection of our desperation and wishful thinking?

consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless.

There is no shame in feeling bad about having to kill. The shame comes when you no longer care.

The word, and the concept of feminism, was a gift because it gave me a sense of identity and a way of defining how I wished to live my life.

You sit in your tepee and dream and then you go to wherever the dream may take you. It might come true. You wait for real life to catch up.

You hear the beginning of a melody, you should kind of know it's going to lead down this path. It should start feeling like a friend, like familiar.

Strike not for a few cents more an hour, because the price of living will be raised faster still, but strike for all you earn, be content with nothing less.

The biggest thrill you can have is to tell people one of your songs, and have them be able to hum it.

Sexual attraction keeps throwing self-interest off course.

I really think that the psychedelic realm is the realm of ideas, and that ideas which change the world come first from that place.