The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman Quotes
"If I don’t he go’n just worry me to death," Miss Jane said.
"Take what she say and be satisfied," Mary would say.
"Don’t put my food up," they said, "I’m go’n kill me up a few Yankees and I’m coming right on back home."
"You can’t tie all the ends together in one neat direction."
"We free, we free, we free. Oh, Lordy, we free."
"Stop that pointing," my mistress said. "You can’t tell where a Yankee might be."
"You don’t want them boiling you in oil and eating you, do you?"
"If I know Yankees I know they touched something," she said.
"I hope they kill y’all before the night over. I’m go’n tell them which way y’all went, and I’m go’n tell them go kill y’all."
"I think that’s a big order even for somebody smart as you."
"Still going? That’s where I started for," I said.
"That's what life's about, doing it good as you can. When the time come for them to lay you down in that long black hole, they can say one thing: 'He did it good as he could.' That’s the best thing you can say for a man."
"I don’t give nothing but sure answers. I am Madame Eloise Gautier, formerly of New Orleans."
"If he is true he will be destroyed by some other horse himself. If he’s not true, then something else will take him."
"Your Pittman will not break this horse. Your Pittman has got old and fat now. Not the man he think he is."
"He believes a horse is made to be broken. All horses made to be broken, true, but not every man can break every horse."
"Man is put here to die. From the day he is born him and death take off for that red string. But he never wins, he don’t even tie."
"I will build my school. I will teach till they kill me."
"Your people’s bones and their dust make this place yours more than anything else."
"You don’t own this earth, you’re just here for a little while, but while you’re here don’t let no man tell you the best is for him and you take the scrap."
"Let me tell you this, warriors. He’s got no idea how many of us here."
"Wouldn’t you rather die saying I’m a man than to die saying I’m a contented slave?"
"Memories wasn’t a place, memories was in the mind."
"Let the poor work, let the poor fight in your wars, then let them die. But you’re not supposed to help the poor."
"If you’re at a Creole dance you got to have somebody there called Jacques."
"That’s his fault, she said. But I got no interest in men, black or white. I’m for these children here."
"Robert is more human being than he is white man, Miss Jane."
"He looked at her with love, and I mean the kind that’s way deep inside of you."
"People’s always looking for somebody to come lead them."
"The Master will let me know when He wants His servant Up High."
"We didn’t call his name—that wasn’t right to the rest of the sinners—but we did it on the sly."
"Religion raises the heart, makes you noble, it don’t make you crazy."
"Not everybody is sent to preach. Some are sent to pray, some are sent to sing."
"If a lady shouted he would help the ushers hold her down."
"I want rip my chest open and let it free. I pray to God to take it out, but look like the Lord don’t hear me."
"He is very bright." "He will make some girl happy." "He will be a credit to his family."
"Leaders don’t bring forth people. The people and the time brought King; King didn’t bring the people."
"Freedom here is able to make a little living and have the white folks say you good."
"Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, look what you’ve done. Look what you’ve done."
"Just a little piece of him is dead, the rest of him is waiting for us in Bayonne."