Zora Neale Hurston

It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your morning coffee.

There is something about poverty that smells like death.

I want a busy life, a just mind, and a timely death.

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide.

Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do it enough to impress themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much.

Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.

Grown people know that they do not always know the way of things, and even if they think they know, they do not know where and how they got the proof.

Silence is all the genius a fool has.

An envious heart makes a treacherous ear.

When we sing the blues, we’re singing out our hearts, we’re singing out our feelings. Maybe we’re hurt and just can’t answer back, then we sing or maybe even hum the blues.

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

I have been in Sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands.

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.

I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.