Patricia Williams > Quotes

“I knew from experience that next to jail the place with the highest concentration of trifling bitches was elementary school.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat

“When most folks think about the problems of growing up in the hood, they think about what it must feel like to be poor, or hungry, or to have your lights cut off. The struggle nobody talk about is what it feel like to be invisible, or to know in your heart the nobody cares. Mama didn’t want to be famous, she wanted to be seen.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat

“I was a grown woman before I found out black folks aren’t the only ones who have hard times. Everybody’s got a struggle. Nobody gets through this life easy.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“The way you turn a sad story around, you should be a comedian! You’re the funniest person I know.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“There is a myth in this country that the way out of poverty is to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” that by sheer force of will one can change the course of one’s life, no matter how great the obstacles. But in all my years reporting, I’ve never once spoken to someone who came from abject poverty and transcended that path without help.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“Is this for someone special?" asked the saleslady as she folded my purchase in layers of tissue paper.
"For my mama," I said proudly. "She dead.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat

“When most folks think about the problems of growing up in the hood, they think about what it must feel like to be poor, or hungry, or to have your lights cut off. The struggle nobody talks about is what it feels like to be invisible, or to know in your heart that nobody cares. Mama didn’t want to be famous; she wanted to be seen. All those years I thought we were so different, but when I stepped onstage and saw all those facing smiling back at me, I realized Mama and I craved the same thing.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“Well, Lord, I changed my mind. Fuck that nigga. Take away my love for that lying piece of shit. Don’t change him. Please, God, change my heart.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“Crack seemed to have a different hold on folks than liquor did. Drunks would sober up and come to their senses in the morning. But once a crackhead got hooked all they did was chase that high. Even if it meant selling everything they owned for a hit: wedding rings, household appliances, their kids’ clothes. Anything that had been important didn’t matter anymore.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“Now it’s like we on a highway to hell.” He added, “At least we have Bill Cosby.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“Mama didn’t trust a doctor, so whenever something was wrong with one of her kids, she liked to do the diagnosing herself by asking a million questions and then taking a wild guess.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat

“it's ok to disappear until you feel like you again.”
― Patricia Williams

“I realized that aging gracefully was less about grace and more about strength. I had to toughen up.”
― Patricia Williams, While They're Still Here: A Memoir

“I vowed to myself to do everything possible to help my parents be happy, and I prayed they would work at it, too. I knew I wanted to provide them with every bit of support I could without taking away their own legs to stand on.”
― Patricia Williams, While They're Still Here: A Memoir

“He definitely wasn’t my type. I liked the roughneck Jodeci look, and Michael was so clean-cut, he looked more like the fifth member of Boys II Men.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: A Memoir

“I didn't want my exhaustion to burn through my empathy. How terrifying was this loss of electric power superimposed on the powerlessness of aging and disability? I could not fathom it and tried not to be judgmental about my parents' reactions. How did it feel not seeing well to begin with and then functioning by flashlight? How did it feel to depend on others for your heat, water, and food?”
― Patricia Williams, While They're Still Here: A Memoir

“Their religion was never something they talked about, aside from offering a brief grace at big meals. They simply tried to abide by the Ten Commandments as best they could, with occasional lapses of racism and prejudice and fractured promises of fidelity.”
― Patricia Williams, While They're Still Here: A Memoir

“It seems I am running out of words these days. I feel as if I am on a linguistic treadmill that has gradually but unmistakably increased its speed, so that no word I use to positively describe myself or my scholarly projects lasts for more than five seconds. I can no longer justify my presence in academia, for example, with words that exist in the English language. The moment I find some symbol of my presence in the rarefied halls of elite institutions, it gets stolen, co-opted, filled with negative meaning.”
― Patricia Williams

“It occurred to me that maybe it wasn't my fault I wasn't crying for my dead Momma. Maybe I wasn't full of grief because Momma hadn't given me the kind of special memories I needed to feel sad about her passing, all she ever gave me was a feeling of being cheated out of love.”
― Patricia Williams, Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat