Cynthia Bond > Quotes

“If you brave enough to live it, the least I can do is listen.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Hope was a dangerous thing, something best squashed before it became contagious.”
― Cynthia bond, Ruby

“Your daddy and me named you Otha. It means 'wealth'. You were your daddy's treasure from the time you were born until he died. He used to say there were rubies buried deep inside of you. Remember, baby, don't never let a man mine you for your riches. Don't let him take a pickax to that treasure in your soul. Remember, they can't get it until you give it to them.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ruby knew then that a lie could only control a person if they believed it.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Those yellow eyes had seen the thing Ruby hid, even from herself. And when two people see a thing, for better or worse, it becomes real.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ain’t nobody ever gone answer you cries. You can fill a well with tears, and all you gonna get is drowned. You sit there long enough and the crazy man find you. You weep too long, your heart ache so, the flesh slip off your bones and your soul got to find a new home. You wait on answers ’til the scaredy-cat curl up in your belly and use your liver for a pin cushion. And that’s just how you die.O”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Monday morning broke through, rubbing Sunday out of its eyes.”
― Cynthia Bond

“He wanted to tell her that he had seen a part of the night sky resting in her eyes and that he knew it because it lived in him as well. He wanted to tell her about the knot corded about his heart and how he needed her help to loose the binding.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ephram took her hand, “But I’ll tell you what. I’m most interested in the woman you have yet to be.”O”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Don't let sorrow steal 'way truth.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“maybe devilment was catching. Maybe crazy was a cold you caught.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“The food, though seasoned a little heavily with judgement, went down just fine.”
― Cynthia Bond

“Remember, baby, don’t never let a man mine you for your riches. Don’t let him take a pickax to that treasure in your soul. Remember, they can’t get it until you give it to them. They might lie and try to trick you out of it, baby, and they’ll try. They might lay a hand on you, or worse, they might break your spirit, but the only way they can get it is to convince you it’s not yours to start with. To convince you there’s nothing there but a lump of coal.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Lately, he’d felt like his bones were God’s kindling. That God must be awfully cold to set so many fires.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Teach them to see it, teach them by doing. But if you can’t, if you done give your treasure away, if you find it hard to make your way in the dark of your own soul, if you forget who you really are, know that it comes back to you when the lie they give you die. That lie don’t die easy, and sometimes it take you with it. But for all that, your bounty yet waits for you to claim it.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“You know boy, I coulda been your daddy, but the fella in line behind me had correct change.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“When she’d stepped from the red bus, the porch had crowded her with their eyes. Hair pressed and gleaming like polished black walnut. Lipstick red and thick, her cornflower blue sundress darted and stitched tight to her waist. Ephram had watched her light a cigarette and glare down at the crowd on the market porch in such a way that made folks feel embarrassed for breathing. Chauncy Rankin had said later, “Not only do her shit not stink, way she act, she ready to sell it by the ounce.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Maybe crazy was a cold you caught.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ephram watched as Miss P went to give the girl a hug. Ruby bristled and inched back, shaming the older woman into converting her gesture into straightening Tabasco bottles on a nearby shelf.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“She made it in that pocket of time before dawn, when the aging night gathered its dark skirts and paused in the stillness.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“A piece of thunder broke off and rolled about on the forest floor.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“As Ephram waited for the pain, he saw Ruby as she used to be, the first time he'd seen her. The sweet little girl with long braids. The kind of pretty it hurt to look at, like candy on a sore tooth.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“She’d smelled like sweat, ammonia and Tootsie Pops.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ruby put her arms around her, but because she could not hold air, the child walked inside of her body, curled there and settled into her womb.”
― Cynthia Bond

“a lie could only control a person if they believed it.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“But the eyes of men were too strong, and the continued spitting and snickering of Gubber Samuels anchored him against the tug of mercy.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ruby saw the walls of her own soul, saw things sparkling there she had never thought to look upon. Pictures of women, old, ancient with eyes like eagles, hand with love burning. She saw Maggie. There were sparkling lights lining the walls, gemstones gleaming.”
― Cynthia Bond

“Ruby saw the walls of her own soul, saw things sparkling there she had never thought to look upon. Pictures of women, old, ancient with eyes like eagles, hands with love burning. She saw Maggie. There were sparkling lights lining the walls, gemstones gleaming.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ephram broke through. “You kiss me, woman! Don't let sorrow steal 'way truth. Don't blaspheme who we is.”
― Cynthia Bond

“John Imig, Damon O’Neil and Jason Parker of Swork Coffee, for the life-sustaining elixir, and for allowing me to rest, type and weep for hours into months into years.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby