Chevy Shoemaker

“Only this woman Sethe could have left him his manhood like that. He wants to put his story next to hers.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“How to have privacy without losing the little light that might want to shine on them.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Grandma Baby said people look down on her because she has eight children with different men. Coloredpeople and whitepeople both look down on her for that. Slaves not supposed to have pleasurable feelings on their own; their bodies not supposed to be like that, but they have to have as many children as they can to please whoever owned them. Still, they were not supposed to have pleasure deep down. She said for me not to listen to all that. That I should always listen to my body and love it.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Denver kept her eyes on the road in case they were whitemen; in case she was walking where they wanted to; in case they said something and she would have to answer them. Suppose they flung out at her, grabbed her, tied her. They were getting closer. Maybe she should cross the road-now. Was the woman who half waved at her still there in the open door? Would she come to her rescue, or, angry at Denver for not waving back, would she withhold her help? Maybe she should turn around, get closer to the waving woman's house.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved