"Violet takes better care of her parrot than she does me. Rest of the time, she's cooking pork I can't eat, or pressing hair I can't stand the smell of. Maybe that's the way it goes with people been married long as we have. But the quiet. I can't take the quiet. She don't hardly talk anymore, and I ain't allowed near her. Any other man be running around, stepping out every night, you know that. I ain't like that. I ain't." Chapter 2, pg. 49

"You didn't come here to say you sorry. I thought maybe you did. You come in here to deliver some of your own evil." Chapter 3, pg. 80

"Snakes around her crawl the ground at night. Now who's softheaded?" Chapter 4, pg. 104

"We born around the same time, me and you," said Violet. "We women, me and you. Tell me something real. Don't just say I'm grown...