Veronica G. Henry > Quotes

“a person’s anger is often no more than anguish dressed up in a crusty old overcoat.”
― Veronica Henry, Bacchanal

“What I wouldn’t stand for was a religion that tried to put itself above all others. Everybody had their gods or goddesses; we may have called them different names, but underneath, they all served the same causes. Meaning, love, redemption. And I, for one, didn’t think that one group had any leg up on another. My practice was mine and always would be, but if praying to a merman from the lost city of Atlantis gets you through the day without the need to hurt or demean or rule over someone else, then I’d say go for it.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“But a person’s anger is often no more than anguish dressed up in a crusty old overcoat.”
― Veronica Henry, Bacchanal

“Human beings reserved their most potent venom for the ones we love.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“To me, anger was like a dragon. It sat alongside the good and moral part of you. It was the balance, you see. You wouldn’t want to kill the dragon. You’d want to tame it. The fire could be useful in certain situations. When you needed to stand up for yourself. When you needed to stand up for someone else.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“While some folks wouldn’t understand, in our neighborhood we knew what the foster care system did to a child.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“Jamey’s face lit up like a jar of fireflies.”
― Veronica Henry, Bacchanal

“The last thing any intelligent, sensible Black person wanted to do was to voluntarily go to a police station. Only under two circumstances were we normally forced to circumvent this reality: if we were arrested, justly or unjustly so, or if we were lucky enough to be picking up released friends or family.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“We’d survived other storms. New Orleans sat below sea level; such things were expected. And to continue to call this city home, most of us were willing to pay the price ten times over. It had a soul that couldn’t be found in any other part of the country. We wouldn’t give that up without a fight.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“In my experience, the thing that Black people had to contend with, often in a split second, was whether the person you were dealing with was giving you attitude because they were a racist or because they were just an asshole.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“Yes, ma’am.” Sophie was raised by someone who valued manners. You could call me a cynic, but people I met for the first time started out with a negative balance. They earned their way onto the positive side based on their actions. Little Sophie had earned a plus one.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“Sometimes experience is just the thing that makes it difficult for someone to see a new way of doing things. It is that knowledge that gets in the way by convincing the self that the self knows all there is to know on a subject.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Canopy Keepers

“The mind could conjure all kinds of fanciful scenarios to assuage the guilt of a poor choice of last words.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“With my client banished to the far-eastern corner of his home with directions to kneel and recite ten rosaries (five more than was strictly called for, but I didn’t like him and I could be petty), I got to work.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“Trombone Shorty’s “Hurricane Season” filled every corner of the room, and I found myself bobbing my head along with the beat. This song embodied New Orleans; if you didn’t get that, you did not, absolutely could not, fathom this city.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“Wasn’t it Rumi who said that as you start to walk on the way, the way appears?”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Canopy Keepers

“This is not your sword to fall upon.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The People's Library

“Her father smoked cannabis for most of her childhood. It’s the only thing that helped with his insomnia. She wonders if the smoke has finally clogged his lungs or if the lack of sleep has taken its toll.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Canopy Keepers

“Life, as well as it can, is trying to reassemble itself into whatever their new normal will be.”
― Veronica G. Henry, A Breathless Sky

“Some people would call what I’d just done social engineering. I called it good old-fashioned common sense. I was getting good at this whole detective thing.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“The problem is that for every time nature tries to direct you, you rebuff her. That is what causes all your pain.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Canopy Keepers

“Religion had long been twisted and manipulated to suit whoever was in charge at the moment.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“She didn’t want to dash her hopes outright. Having a dream was no small matter for a girl child.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Candles Are Burning

“What he means to say is that death is not yours to see or foretell. I am the keeper of the candles.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Candles Are Burning

“The candles are burning,” his associate began. “Ever burning. Some are just starting; others are nearing their end. I have come to gift you with news of another ending.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Candles Are Burning

“The police were a fixture at public ceremonies—really anyplace where Black folks were out in numbers greater than two—but detectives, particularly Roman and Darby, were not.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“Roman had questioned why women even carried purses. Only a man who hadn’t struggled daily with where to put his keys and wallet, phone, and notebook would ask something so ridiculous.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Quarter Storm

“The scene had unfolded obnoxious as a foghorn but faded away softly like a page turning in a book.”
― Veronica G. Henry, The Candles Are Burning

“A moment later, the phone was properly positioned, and my father smiled the smile of someone continuously amazed at the little twenty-first-century gifts I gave him.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm

“People had scrambled onto rooftops, crowded into attics. Far too many drowned. Pillaging and violence ensued. For some it was sport, but for most, it had been their only means of survival. The NOPD, in their haste to restore order, had set about finishing off the job of the real estate investors who had been plotting for decades. Got rid of people in certain neighborhoods.”
― Veronica Henry, The Quarter Storm