Zora Neale Hurston

"There are things you discover about yourself by the time you reach my age. By sixty-three, you've learned that some people love you and some don't, and that's just the way it is."

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."

"This is a lonely life, sorta. Of all the things I've done, the most important are my friendships."

"If you want that new life, you have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and get to work."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"Don't be afraid to take that big leap. It will change your life."

"I love myself when I am laughing, and then again when I am looking mean and impressive."

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea."

"Tell them I was a writer."

"Nothing that God ever made is the same thing to more than one person."

"Jump at de sun. You might not land on the sun, but you'll get off the ground."

"Every tub sits on its own bottom."

"I have the nerve to walk my own way."

"Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear."

"It was a good feeling to have friends, to be a part of a community of women."

"Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose."

"No matter how long the night, the sun always rises."

"Their eyes were watching God, and in that moment, love prevailed."

"There is strength in numbers, but there is also strength within yourself."

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically."

"All my skinfolk ain't my kinfolk."

"I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood."

"You have to go there to know there."

"It looks like reality was as bad as they come."

"The world is still made up of two kinds of people, those who want to lead, and those content to be led."

"Work like you don't need the money."

"Without the hope of fellowship, the prison becomes a place of unspeakable horror."

"I like flowers, music, art, and people."

"Nature is a healer of the soul."

"I have always been more interested in the future than in preserving the past."