Sarah

“I woke up with the shakes and went to bed with the runs. It all became too much, and a deep sadness had strangled me til I didn't want to live no more. Ten years went by without me drawing a clean breath. I lost my home, my woman, and only worked enough odd jobs to keep my mouth from getting dry. Alcohol had become my master; it was the only thing that mattered,”
― Sadeqa Johnson, Keeper of Lost Children

“I turned my fork over on my plate wondering why it was always my responsibility to worry over what grown men might be thinking. I had been hearing it all my life. Even back to when I lived with Nene, as a flat-chested eight-year-old, I was constantly reminded to be modest. Not to leave the bathroom without my robe on when an uncle or cousin or friend of the family was at the house, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.”
― Sadeqa Johnson, The House of Eve

“I worked in the house and was raised alongside his daughter, though I was not allowed to touch the books that lined Mister Bobo's library. In them days, I thought books was magical, that they cast spells. To read was to have the language to ask for the things you wanted, so I became determined to teach myself.”
― Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Happy Land

“Hearts grow strings because of what you know that's the same, what happened to you that's the same. And when what you want is the same.”
― Tayari Jones, Kin