Heidi W. Durrow Quotes & Sayings

I'm not the color of my skin. I'm a story. One with a past and a future unwritten. — Heidi W. Durrow

Seeing Grandma this way, it makes me know for certain that everything about a person will show up in another person in the family. — Heidi W. Durrow

A ghetto has tall buildings and empty lots, trash all over the street and city noise. Here the houses are two stories; the houses have trees in front and everyone has a yard. I always told Tracy she was wrong, but now I think Tracy was right. The ghetto looks different in different places, but if you live there, it makes you feel the same. — Heidi W. Durrow

The way Grandma paints her dream for me, there's a low sky. — Heidi W. Durrow

If there's no one else to tell another side - the only story that can be told is the story that becomes true. (p. 173) — Heidi W. Durrow

Math can explain the reason there's one out of four chance that I'd have blue eyes. But it doesn't explain why me. — Heidi W. Durrow

The bottle is where everything sad or mean or confusing can go. And the blues
it's like that bottle. But in the bottle there's a seed that you let grow. Even in the bottle it can grow big and green. It's full of all those feelings that are in there, but beautiful and growing too. — Heidi W. Durrow

That makes me think of how the other black girls in school think I want to be white. They call me an Oreo. I don't want to be white. Sometimes I want to go back to being what I was. I want to be nothing. — Heidi W. Durrow

Grandma sees these things when she talks about them and gestures with her hands like she's painting brush strokes in the air. The way Grandma paints her dreams for me, there's a low sky. — Heidi W. Durrow

I don't know if it's better to have people laugh at what you are or just not understand. — Heidi W. Durrow

A woman made of parts is a dangerous thing. You never know when she'll throw away a piece you may need. — Heidi W. Durrow

I think what a family is shouldn't be so hard to see. It should be the one thing people know just by looking at you. — Heidi W. Durrow

I think of how Grandma makes fun of love. And maybe that's the key. — Heidi W. Durrow

Aunt Loretta has something that maybe you could call class. It's not the made-up kind that Grandma has, fake pearls and Sunday hats, but something that comes to you as if you were born to the king and queen. Aunt Loretta understands better than Grandma that reading a big book is more classy than wearing fake pearls watching TV. — Heidi W. Durrow

It's easy to smile just to make other people feel better. But when a person fakes happy, it has edges. Regular people may not see, but the people who count, they can see the edges and the lines where your smile ends and the real you, the sadness (me) or the anger (Grandma) begins. — Heidi W. Durrow

These white girls think all they need is love. — Heidi W. Durrow

When the song is over, she bows and I clap. I wonder how come she seems so brave. There is no part of her she hides. Lakeisha sits with me now on the bed and says,"Wanna hear a story?" I don't have to say yes before she tells me . — Heidi W. Durrow

I will not be sad. I will be okay. Those promises become my layers. The middle that no one will touch. — Heidi W. Durrow

We live in the same house but we both feel lonely. We and lonely don't belong in the same sentence. — Heidi W. Durrow

Aunt Loretta doesn't look like herself, but she doesn't look broken. — Heidi W. Durrow