Not a house in the country ain’t packed to its rafters with some dead Negro’s grief.

I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms. No more running from nothing. I will never run from another thing on this earth. I took one journey and I paid for the ticket, but let me tell you something, Paul D Garner: it cost too much! Do you hear me? It cost too much. Now sit down and eat with us or leave us be.

A man ain’t nothing but a man,” said Baby Suggs. “But a son? Well now, that’s somebody.

Every dawn she saw the dawn, but never acknowledged or remarked its color. There was something wrong with that. It was as though one day she saw red baby blood...