Sometimes she worried that she was too happy. . . And her joy would become a restless thing, flapping its wings inside her, as though looking for an opening to fly away.

Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I'm Jamaican or I'm Ghanaian. America doesn't care.

There are many different ways to be poor in the world but increasingly there seems to be one single way to be rich.

Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.

Ifemelu thought about the expression "sweet girl." Sweet girl meant that, for a long time, Don had molded Ranyinudo into a malleable shape, or that she had allowed him to think he had.

A book did not qualify as literature unless it had polysyllabic words and incomprehensible passages.

Ma? I think you have the spirit of husband-repelling. You are too hard, ma, you will not find a husband. But my pastor can destroy that spirit.

femelu could not understand this, her mother’s ability to tell herself stories about her reality that did not even resemble her reality

They never said “I don’t know.” They said, instead, “I’m not sure, ” which did not give any information but still suggested the possibility of knowledge.

...she thought of him as a person who did not have a normal spine, but had instead, a firm reed of goodness.

One day, I will look up and all the people I know will be dead or abroad.

No level of success is ever too great to stop striving and thriving.

Before the Apocalypse, the closest I'd gotten to death was buying steaks at the supermarket.

Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism as part of the Christian faith.

Inevitably we start by thinking that if our work is any good, we'll get money. It's as we would if you started up a business or if you work in another profession.

Originally a stylist took terrible dresses and did everything she could to make them wonderful. Now, you create an image. It's much more specialized.

We have to cross the boundary between knowing and not knowing many times before we achieve understanding.

I gotta die with money cuz i wasn't born with it

The important thing is not to be masochistic. Women are so hard on themselves. Don't do that. No one is keeping score.

A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another.

Civil officials have no business meddling in private religious affairs.