Best quotes by Kathryn Stockett

EmpathyUnityGender EqualityPersonal ConnectionWasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.

DeterminationResiliencePersonal GrowthSelf-BeliefCriticismEver morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?

Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.

CensorshipMississippiI always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good.

Personal GrowthBeliefAwarenessSelf-DiscoveryChoices....I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.

BooksWho knew paper and ink could be so vicious

BooksEmotionsEnjoymentReadingEscapeGreat books give you a feeling that you miss all day, until you finally get to crawl back inside those pages again.

ResilienceHumorNegativityIt seems like at some point you'd run out of awful.

KindnessBoundariesAll I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries.

KindnessImportancePersonal GrowthSelf-WorthYou is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Personal GrowthPerseveranceSelf-BeliefYou're gon' have to say to your self, am I gon' believe what them fools say about me today?

EmotionsThere is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism.(Howell Raines's Pulitzer Prize winning article "Grady's Gift")-Sockett admired this quote and used it in her summary.

I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.

ResiliencePerseveranceI was surprise to see the world didn't stop just cause my boy did.

...out of the blue, he kissed me. Right in the middle of the Robert E. Lee Hotel Restaurant, he kissed me so slowly with an open mouth and every single thing in my body-my skin, my collarbone, the hollow backs of my knees, everything inside of me filled up with light.

DiscriminationI grew up in the 1970s, but I don't think a whole lot had changed from the '60s. Oh, it had changed in the law books - but not in the kitchens of white homes.

FashionClothingDislikeShe already got the blue dress on I ironed this morning, the one with sixty-five pleats on the waist, so tiny I got to squint through my glasses to iron. I don’t hate much in life, but me and that dress is not on good terms.

Personal BeliefsRaceGenderPoliticsChoiceAll my life I'd been told what to believe about politics, coloreds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realized I actually had a choice in what I could believe.

PerseveranceThe point is, I can’t tell you how to succeed. But I can tell you how not to: Give in to the shame of being rejected and put your manuscript—or painting, song, voice, dance moves, [insert passion here]—in the coffin that is your bedside drawer and close it for good. I guarantee you that it won’t take you anywhere. Or you could do what this writer did: Give in to your obsession instead.

Kindness...and that's when I get to wondering, what would happen if I told her she something good, ever day?

Self-RealizationDiscriminationI used to believe in em (lines). I don't anymore. They in our heads. Lines between black and white ain't there neither. Some folks just made those up, long time ago. And that go for the white trash and the so-ciety ladies too.

ResilienceSelf-ExpressionAnd if your friends make fun of you for chasing your dream, remember—just lie.

AuthenticityStorytellingReality....we ain't doing civil rights here. We just telling stories like they really happen.

EmpathyCompassionCause everbody care. Black, white, deep down we all do.

Personal GrowthUgly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person.

ResilienceDespairPerspectiveIsolationRealizationThat was the day my whole world went black. Air looked black. Sun looked black. I laid up in bed and stared at the black walls of my house….Took three months before I even looked out the window, see the world still there. I was surprised to see the world didn’t stop.

FriendshipSelf-ConfidenceAcceptanceSecretsOh, it was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with. If I'd had a sister or a brother closer in age, I guessed that's what it would be like. But it wasn't just smoking or skirting around Mother. It was having someone look at you after your mother has nearly fretted herself to death because you are freakishly tall and frizzy and odd. Someone whose eyes simply said, without words, You are fine with me.

EmpathyTime ManagementPrioritizationI'd cry, if only I had the time to do it.

ExperiencesStorytellingMemoriesDatingNo one tells us, girls who don't go on dates, that remembering can be almost as good as what actually happens.

DoubtOpinionI'm sorry, but were you dropped on your head as an infant?

PerceptionClothingAppearanceMake-UpJudgmentShe's wearing a tight red sweater and a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker.

ParentingStereotypesIgnoranceI want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming - and it come in ever white child's life - when they start to think that colored folks ain't as good as whites. ... I pray that wasn't her moment, Pray I still got time.

FriendshipPower DynamicsRule Number One for working for a white lady, Minny: it is nobody’s business. You keep your nose out of your White Lady’s problems, you don’t go crying to her with yours—you can’t pay the light bill? Your feet are too sore? Remember one thing: white people are not your friends. They don’t want to hear about it. And when Miss White Lady catches her man with the lady next door, you keep out of it, you hear me?

Gender RolesSocietal NormsSexualityBosoms are for bedrooms and breastfeeding.

FaithPrayerThat's the way prayer do. It's like electricity, it keeps things going.

ExhaustionRebellionFrustrationI'm tired of the rules," I say.

LifeDeterminationResilienceDeathI have decided not to die.

IdentityBeauty StandardsCultural DifferencesLord, I never seen blue hair on a black woman before or since. Leroy say you look like a cracker from outer space.

AdmirationAppreciationListeningI listened wide-eyed, stupid. Glowing by her voice in the dim light. If chocolate was a sound, it would've been Constantine's voice singing. If singing was a color, it would've been the color of that chocolate.

ExpressionEmotionsPowerWritingSadnessIt can be really powerful to write something when youre sad.

Childhood MemoriesRole ModelsAs children, we looked up to our maids and our nannies, who were playing in some ways the role of our mothers. They were paid to be nice to us, to look after us, teach us things and take time out of their day to be with us. As a child you think of these people as an extension of your mother.

ProgressPrideI have never been more proud of the United States than I am this year. We have elected an African-American president. We have the stellar Michelle Obama setting the standard for American women. I simply cannot say it enough: look how far we've come.

Everyone knows how we white people feel, the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family. Margaret Mitchell covered that. But no one ever asked Mammy how she felt about it.

FriendshipPower DynamicsDependencyMiss Leefolt sigh, hang up the phone like she just don't know how her brain gone operate without Miss Hilly coming over to push the Think buttons.

RebellionAnd why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

MarriageRelationshipsFamilyRegretsGriefI nursed a worthless, pint drinker for twelve years and when my lazy, life-sucking, daddy finally died, I swore to God with tears in my eyes I'd never marry one. And then I did.

IdentitySelf-WorthBaby Girl," I say. "I need you remember everything I told you. Do you remember what I told you?" She still crying steady, but the hiccups are gone. "To wipe my bottom good when I'm done?" "No, baby, the other one. About who you are.

ResilienceStrengthSorry is the fool who ever underestimates my mother.

Down in the national news section, there's an article on a new pill, the 'Valium' they're calling it, 'to help women cope with everyday challenges.' God, I could use about ten of those little pills right now.

TimeRelationshipSpaceStuart needs "space" and "time," as if this were physics and not a human relationship.

They say it's like true love, good help. you only get one in a lifetime.....there is so much you don't know about a person. i wonder if i could've made her days a little bit easier, if I'd tried. if i'd treated her a little nicer.

ChallengesEmotionsParentingThe day your child says she hates you, and every child will go through the phase, it kicks like a foot in the stomach.

Having a separate bathroom for the black domestic was just the way things were done. It had faded out in new homes by the time the '70s and '80s rolled up.

ChangePerspectiveOptimismHere's to new beginnings," Stuart says and raises his bourbon. I nod, sort of wanting to tell him that all beginnings are new.

FashionOnly three things them ladies talk about: they kids, they clothes, and they friends. I hear the word Kennedy, I know they ain’t discussing no politic. They talking about what Miss Jackie done wore on the tee-vee.

FriendshipPerseveranceCourageRacismWhy don't we just build you an house outside Hilly?

EmpowermentGrowthIdentityPerceptionReflectionI look deep into her rich brown eyes and she look into mine. Law, she got old-soul eyes, like she done lived a thousand years. And I swear I see, down inside, the woman she gone grow up to be. She is tall and straight. She is proud. She got a better haircut. And she is remembering the words I put in her head. Remembering as a full-grown woman.

FearIsolationPersonal TransformationI've become one of those people who prowl around at night in their cars. God, I am the town's Boo Radley, just like in To Kill A Mockingbird.

RelationshipsLoyaltyAppreciationThey say it's like true love, good help. You only get one in a lifetime.

[Crisco] ain't just for frying. You ever get a sticky something stuck in your hair,like gum?...That's right, Crisco. Spread this on a baby's bottom, you won't even know what diaper rash is...shoot, I seen ladies rub it under they eyes and on they husband's scaly feet...Clean the goo from a price tag, take the squeak out a door hinge. Lights get cut off, stick a wick in it and burn it like a candle....And after all that, it'll still fry your chicken.

HappinessSelf-WorthPerspectiveMiss Celia stares down into the pot like she's looking for her future. "Are you happy, Minny?" "Why you ask me funny questions like that?" "But are you?" "Course I's happy. You happy too. Big house, big yard, husband looking after you." I frown at Miss Celia and I make sure she can see it. Because ain't that white people for you, wondering if they are happy ENOUGH.

LearningEducationMisconceptionsHistoryWhat you learn today?" I ask even though she ain't in real school, just the pretend kind. Other day, when I ask her, she say, "Pilgrims. They came over and nothing would grow so they ate the Indians." Now knew them Pilgrims didn't eat no Indians. But that ain't the point.

FriendshipLoveGratitudeShe hug me around my neck, say, "You're righter than Miss Taylor." I tear up then. My cup is spilling over. Those is new words to me.

MusicColorSingingIf singing was a color, it would've been the color of that chocolate.

InspirationNew York CityWriting ProcessVoiceI started writing it the day after Sept. 11. I was living in New York City. We didnt have any phone service and we didnt have any mail. Like a lot of writers do, I started to write in a voice that I missed.

EmpathySensitivityIm a Southerner - I never take satisfaction in touching a nerve.

LovePassionEmotionsWho knew heartbreak would be so goddamn hot.

RaceI do wish that people talked about the subject of race, especially in the South.

TrustParentingI reckon that’s the risk you run, letting somebody else raise you chilluns.

New YorkBusinessMississippiI hear Raleigh's new accounting business isn't doing well. Maybe up in New York or somewhere it's a good thing, but in Jackson, Mississippi, people just don't care to do business with a rude, condescending asshole.

EmpathyFamily DynamicsSome readers tell me, 'We always treated our maid like she was a member of the family.' You know, that's interesting, but I wonder what your maid's perspective was on that.

ColorShameShame ain't black, like dirt, like I always thought it was. Shame be the color of a new white uniform your mother ironed all night to pay for, white without a smudge or a speck a work-dirt on it.

SilenceImpactSignificancePresident Kennedy’s assassination, less than two weeks ago, has struck the world dumb. It’s like no one wants to be the first to break the silence. Nothing seems important.

HappinessStereotypesBecause ain’t that white people for you, wondering if they are happy enough.

Personal ExperienceMississippiI was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1969, in a time and place where no one was saying, Look how far weve come, because we hadnt come very far, to say the least. Although Jacksons population was half white and half black, I didnt have a single black friend or a black neighbor or even a black person in my school.