Naima Coster > Quotes

“Daughters get either their courage or their fear from their mothers.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“chancletas,”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“Penelope had met white women like her at RISD—women who were certain they were the center of everyone’s world. If someone wanted to steal a handbag, it would be her handbag. If someone wanted to pick a lock, it would be her lock. She was no better than the Manhattan friends Marcus complained about.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“Maybe this was another way that she was white: the ease with which she could ignore calamity, focus mainly on what she wanted.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“They’re always going to be looking at you. To see if you measure up. To see if you’ll make a mistake. They’ll try and see if you’re really as smart as they’re afraid you are. And you’ve got to answer their question.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“They smoked and drank as if they were already defeated, hardened, and long out of art school.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“If they’re going to look at you, then you’ve got to give them something to look at.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“Not when you’re a mother. Your circumstances stare you in the face every morning, ask you what’s for breakfast.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“Why steep in someone else’s disappointment? Why linger where you aren’t wanted?”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“life with him would have made her feeble, plastic; here she had her bones.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“don’t invest in yourself—” Val interrupted. “Milly”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“Well”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“They all had their trademarks: one did superheroes, another did mash-ups of quotes from his favorite philosophers, one liked painting doorways on the sides of buildings, some open and some closed, and the bike mechanic liked to do flowers and grass, rising up from the street onto pipes and brick. Jon did circles, big multicolored, overlaid shapes, swelling like bubbles across the sides of buildings, bright and emphatic.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for fish, will give a snake?”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“It wasn’t long before more than one teacher had told Penelope that she was trying to draw with paint.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“How about this?” Cleo said. “You’re a miserable bitch”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“I guess what I’m trying to say is the only time I’ve never tried to prove anything was with you. I didn’t worry about what other people would think or what it said about me. It was simple. I wanted you for myself.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“Things happened in the neighborhood, yes, and there were kids she knew who got caught up, but there were others, too, who had taken their bicycles out on the street, or walked by themselves to the playground, and managed to survive.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“What does that even mean?” It was wellness speech”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“It’s a shame that making room for white folks mean the rest of us have to go. But it’s always been that way, hasn’t it?”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“an amusement for people who can’t bear living in their own lives”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“Helene was rich”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“These people are cold, Penelope. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. They think a neighborhood is only about what you can buy—fancy coffee, flowers on the table, a big old house. It’s all just stuff to them, stuff they want, stuff they think they deserve because they can afford it. A neighborhood means more than that. It’s about the people.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“She wanted Gee to know this music was for him, that irreverence and rage weren’t just for white boys. He could get a little drunk if he wanted to; he could play in a band; he could say shocking things, wear a dress, pierce his ears, any part of his body that he wanted; he could scream and break things, as long as they belonged to him and it wasn’t in her house. She didn’t want him to act out, but she didn’t want him to worry too much about how the world would see him either.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“He sent her missives and hoped that she could hear. You are beautiful, he said, and I want you. Forever, he said. I am yours.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours

“We all make choices to chase our own happiness.”
― Naima Coster, Halsey Street

“What I mean is you’ve got to be elastic in this life. You’ve got to bend and not break. If you don’t”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“Yes”
― Naima Coster, Take What You Can: The GMA Book Club pick about complex female friendships you'll want to discuss with everyone

“They had laughed, as if Robbie hadn’t nearly drowned. His mouth was already open when Lacey May tilted him back onto the grass. The earth stuck to their wet skin; there were ants. They went on kissing for a long time. Robbie had a gummy, hot sensation in his shorts, a lightness in his head. It was the best he’d ever felt, and the best he would ever feel, until he had cocaine.”
― Naima Coster, What's Mine and Yours