Best quotes by Kathryn Stockett

FashionAppearanceMake-UpAt one O'Clock, Miss Celia comes in the kitchen and says she's ready for her first cooking lesson. She settles on a stool. She's wearing a tight red sweater and a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker.

UnderstandingSimplicityPerspectiveComplexityThat's what I love about Aibileen, she can take the most complicated things in life and wrap them up so small and simple, they'll fit right in your pocket.

LoveWritingJesusReligionMother calls up the stairs to ask what in the world I'm typing up there all day and I holler down, 'Just typing up some notes from the Bible study. Just writing down all the things I love about Jesus.

FearExpressionPerceptionCommunicationit always sound scarier when a hollerer talk soft.

OrganizationMississippiIt's already 95 degrees outside. Mississippi got the most unorganized weather in the nation.

PersistenceDeterminationObsessionI intend to stay on her like hair on soap.

UnderstandingPerceptionIntelligenceCriticismJudgmentShe dumb.” I sigh. “But she ain’t stupid.

FrustrationDiscriminationBut after Mr. Evers got shot a week ago, lot a colored folk is frustrated in this town. Especially the younger ones, who ain't built up a callus yet.

ResilienceUncertaintyReflectionHopeAdversityI wash my hands, wonder how an awful day could turn even worse. It seems like at some point you'd just run out of awful.

LoveIdentityFamily...My sister Doreena who never lifted a royal finger growing up because she had the heart defect that we later found out was a fly on the X-ray machine.

ChangeAcceptanceSelf-RealizationIt weren’t too loo long before I seen something in me, had changed. A bitter seed was planted inside of me. And I just didn’t feel so, accepting, anymore.

Gender DynamicsPower DynamicsStereotypesRacismViolenceWomens, they ain't like men. A woman ain't gone beat you with a stick. Miss Hilly wouldn't pull no pistol on me. Miss Leefolt wouldn't come burn my house down. No, white womens like to keep they hands clean. They got a shiny little set of tools they use, sharp as witches' fingernails, tidy and laid out neat, like the picks on a dentist tray. They gone take they time with em.

StereotypesCultural DifferencesThis woman talk like she from so deep in the country she got corn growing in her shoes.

LovePassionGrowthDiscoveryStuart stands and says, 'Come here,' and he's on my side of the room in one stride and he claps my hands to his hips and kisses my mouth like I am the drink he's been dying for all day and I've heard girls say it's like melting, that feeling. But I think it's like rising, growing even taller and seeing sights over a hedge, colors you've never seen before.

FriendshipHonestyGuiltWith other people, Hilly hands out lies like the Presbyterians hand out guilt, but it's our own silent agreement, this strict honesty, perhaps the one thing that has kept us friends

RacismFamily DynamicsI'm pretty sure I can say that no one in my family ever asked Demetrie what it felt like to be black in Mississippi, working for our white family. It never occurred to us to ask. It was everyday life. It wasn't something people felt compelled to examine. I have wished, for many years, that I'd been old enough and thoughtful enough to ask Demetrie that question. She died when I was sixteen. I've spent years imagining what her answer would be. And that is why I wrote this book.

Self-IdentityReflectionJudgmentAnd you call yourself a Christian,' were Hilly's words to me and I thought, God. When did I ever do that?

DiscriminationGot to be the worst place in the world, inside a oven. You in here, you either cleaning or you getting cooked.

IdentityMemoryNostalgiaCultural DifferencesFoodI may not remember my name or what country I live in, but you and that pie is something I will never forget.

RebellionMisconceptionsSkepticismI give in and light another cigarette even though last night the surgeon general came on the television set and shook his finger at everybody, trying to convince us that smoking will kill us. But Mother once told me tongue kissing would turn me blind and I'm starting to think it's all just a big plot between the surgeon general and Mother to make sure no one ever has any fun.

SacrificeDiscriminationPovertyShameI come home that morning, after I been fired, and stood outside my house with my new work shoes on. The shoes my mama paid a month's worth a light bill for. I guess that's when I understood what shame was and the color of it too. Shame 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.

HappinessCookingCoping MechanismsFrying chicken always makes me feel a little better about life.

MotivationDeterminationPreferencesDesireThat's all a grit is, a vehicle. For whatever it is you rather be eating.

AgeIdentityChildhoodQuestionsWhen you little, you only get asked two questions, what’s your name and how old you is, so you better get em right.

PopularityConsequencesI tell myself that's what you get when you put thirty-one toilets on the most popular girl's front yard. People tend to treat you a little differently than before.

UnderstandingRegretDisappointmentHe let out a long sorry sigh and I love that look on his face, that disappointment. I understand now why girls resist,just for that sweet look of regret.

RelationshipsSocietal ExpectationsBeauty StandardsDatingMrs. Charlotte Phelan's Guide to Husband-Hunting, Rule Number One: a pretty, petite girl should accentuate with makeup and good posture. A tall plain one, with a trust fund.

Self-DiscoveryI haven’t had the chance to look at too many men’s faces up close. And I noticed how his skin was thicker than mine, and a gorgeous shade of toast. The stiff blond hairs on his cheeks and chin seemed to be growing before my eyes. He smelled like starch. Like pine. His nose wasn’t so pointy afterall. …And 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.

LoyaltyMississippiMississippi is like my mother. I am allowed to complain about her all I want, but God help the person who raises an ill word about her around me, unless she is their mother too.

EffortStereotypesWealthRich folk don't try so hard

ConversationSilenceCommunicationI don't know what to say to her. All I know is, I ain't saying it. And I know she ain't saying what she want a say either and it's a strange thing happening here cause nobody saying nothing and we still managing to have us a conversation

AuthenticityTruthSelf-DiscoveryLiberationHealingTruth. It feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that's been burning me up all my life. Truth, I say inside my head again, just for that feeling.

IdentitySelf-PerceptionChildhoodMemoryHer nose wrinkle up cause now she got to remember to say she Mae Mobley Three, when her whole life she can remember, she been telling people she Mae Mobley Two. When you little, you only get asked two questions, what's your name and how old you is, so you better get em right.

Babies like fat. Like to bury they face up in you armpit and go to sleep. They like big fat legs too. That I know.