Quotations from The Color Purple

1. "To Olivia right now Tashi alone is Africa. The Africa she came beaming across the ocean hoping to find."

It stroke me for no particular reason. Perhaps it was Olivia's sweet innocence.

2. "They listen just long enough to issue instructions."

Very interesting depiction of men. Sad that this kind of male chauvinism still prevails nowadays.

3. "Time moves slowly, but passes quickly."

Nettie writes this sentence when talking about her missionary work in Africa. While we are LIVING our life, time moves like a pathetic little car stuck in traffic jam. But as we look BACK to it, time flies.

4. "Trifling, forgitful, and lowdown."

These are the Celie uses to describe "all the other mens [she] knows". Speaking frankly, the intense feminism emanates through this book disturbs me, but this phrase, however, has some truth in it. I can't say all men are "trifling, forgetful and lowdown", but the majority of them fits at least

5. "Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?"

Favorite quotation of this entire book. Shug, the woman who makes this remark, has the ability to love and be loved. She is brave and open about her feelings, ready to make "her moves". Live like Shug, who aims for better things while enjoying the present.

6. "I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here."

How tough Celie is! It doesn't matter who you actually are; we are all born with small or big, few or many imperfections. What really counts, is our attitude and GUTS.

7. "Shug got a right to live too. She got a right to look over the world in whatever company she choose. Just cause I love her don't take away none of here rights."

A declaration of true love. The fact that we love each other doesn't deprive me of my rights as a human being---the right of pursuing happiness.

8. "Who am I to tell her to love? My job just to love her good and true to myself."

Says a lot to me. An ideal attitude towards life. Work and expect no appraisals, love and expect no affections.

9. "I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering 'bout the big things and asting 'bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with."

Perhaps we can never know "why us need love, why us suffer, why us black, why us men and women, where do children really come from", but DON'T EVER STOP WONDERING! It's through wondering little epiphanies come to us.