Kathryn Stockett Quotes & Sayings

Stuart stands and says, 'Come here,' and he's on my side of the room in one stride and he claps my hands to his hips and kisses my mouth like I am the drink he's been dying for all day and I've heard girls say it's like melting, that feeling. But I think it's like rising, growing even taller and seeing sights over a hedge, colors you've never seen before. — Kathryn Stockett

Your white uniform as a black domestic was your ticket anywhere in town. — Kathryn Stockett

She's wearing a tight red sweater and a red skirt and enough makeup to scare a hooker. — Kathryn Stockett

I'm a Southerner - I never take satisfaction in touching a nerve. — Kathryn Stockett

I'm pretty sure I can say that no one in my family ever asked Demetrie what it felt like to be black in Mississippi, working for our white family. It never occurred to us to ask. It was everyday life. It wasn't something people felt compelled to examine.
I have wished, for many years, that I'd been old enough and thoughtful enough to ask Demetrie that question. She died when I was sixteen. I've spent years imagining what her answer would be. And that is why I wrote this book. — Kathryn Stockett

It seems like at some point you'd run out of awful. — Kathryn Stockett

Rich folk don't try so hard — Kathryn Stockett

She already got the blue dress on I ironed this morning, the one with sixty-five pleats on the waist, so tiny I got to squint through my glasses to iron. I don't hate much in life, but me and that dress is not on good terms. — Kathryn Stockett

I've never been happier in my whole life.
I leave it at that. Underneath all that happy, she sure doesn't look happy. — Kathryn Stockett

She's like a Philistine on a Sunday, the way she won't take but so many steps a day. Except every day's Sunday around here. — Kathryn Stockett

This woman talk like she from so deep in the country she got corn growing in her shoes. — Kathryn Stockett

That's what I want them to know. Saying thank you, when you really mean it, when you remember what someone done for you — Kathryn Stockett

THE HOUSE straightened up and then go on and fix some of that chicken salad now, say Miss Leefolt. It's bridge club day. Every fourth Wednesday a the month. A course I already got everthing ready to go - made the chicken salad this morning, ironed the tablecloths yesterday. Miss Leefolt seen me at it too. She ain't but twenty-three years old and she like hearing herself tell me what to do. She already got the blue dress on I ironed this morning, the one with sixty-five pleats on the waist, so tiny I got to squint through my glasses to iron. I don't hate much in life, — Kathryn Stockett

We ain't doing civil rights here. We just telling stories like they really happen. — Kathryn Stockett

And if your friends make fun of you for chasing your dream, remember - just lie. — Kathryn Stockett

It's mighty strange, without a doubt Nobody knows you when you're down and out — Kathryn Stockett

That white uniform was her 'pass' to get into white places with us - the grocery store, the state fair, the movies. Even though this was the 70s and the segregation laws had changed, the 'rules' had not. — Kathryn Stockett

kids in my lifetime. I know how — Kathryn Stockett

Sometimes people get a burst of strength. It's a gift from God, I guess. So they can finish their business. — Kathryn Stockett

Miss Leefolt sigh, hang up the phone like she just don't know how her brain gone operate without Miss Hilly coming over to push the Think buttons. — Kathryn Stockett

Down in the national news section, there's an article on a new pill, the 'Valium' they're calling it, 'to help women cope with everyday challenges.' God, I could use about ten of those little pills right now. — Kathryn Stockett

I'd cry, if only I had the time to do it. — Kathryn Stockett

But after Mr. Evers got shot a week ago, lot a colored folk is frustrated in this town. Especially the younger ones, who ain't built up a callus yet. — Kathryn Stockett

Lord, I never seen blue hair on a black woman before or since. Leroy say you look like a cracker from outer space. — Kathryn Stockett

The phone ring so I go in the kitchen and answer it. Got a little — Kathryn Stockett

I don't know why the bad have to happen to the goodest ones, — Kathryn Stockett

crying, and go in the toilet bowl — Kathryn Stockett

You don't cook pumpkins in the summer, you don't cook peaches in the fall. — Kathryn Stockett

Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought. — Kathryn Stockett

What should we do about it?" asks Miss Celia.
We. God forgive me, but I wish there wasn't a "we" mixed up in this. (Minny) — Kathryn Stockett

I look deep into her rich brown eyes and she look into mine. Law, she got old-soul eyes, like she done lived a thousand years. And I swear I see, down inside, the woman she gone grow up to be. She is tall and straight. She is proud. She got a better haircut. And she is remembering the words I put in her head. Remembering as a full-grown woman. — Kathryn Stockett

For four days straights, I sit at my typewriter in my bedroom. Twenty of my typed pages, full of slashes and red-circled edits, become thirty-one in thick Strathmore white. — Kathryn Stockett

Here's to new beginnings, Stuart says and raises his bourbon. I nod, sort of wanting to tell him that all beginnings are new. — Kathryn Stockett

Mother says she doesn't need the medication anymore, that the only cure for cancer is having a daughter who won't cut her hair and wears dresses too high above the knee even on a Sunday, because how knows what tackiness I'd do to myself if she died. — Kathryn Stockett

Babies like fat. Like to bury they face up in you armpit and go to sleep. They like big fat legs too. That I know. — Kathryn Stockett

I'm really incredibly stubborn - you can ask my ex-husband. I think when you tell me 'no', if it's something I really want, I'm just going to push harder. — Kathryn Stockett

Womens, they ain't like men. A woman ain't gone beat you with a stick. Miss Hilly wouldn't pull no pistol on me. Miss Leefolt wouldn't come burn my house down. No, white womens like to keep they hands clean. They got a shiny little set of tools they use, sharp as witches' fingernails, tidy and laid out neat, like the picks on a dentist tray. They gone take they time with em. — Kathryn Stockett

Sure, I dreamed of football dates, buy my real dream was that one day I would write something that people would actually read — Kathryn Stockett

That's the way prayer do. It's like electricity, it keeps things going. — Kathryn Stockett

But certainly in my grandmother's time - and when I was growing up, yeah, Demetrie's bathroom was on the side of the house, it was a separate door. Still, to this day, I've never been in that room. — Kathryn Stockett

I nursed a worthless, pint drinker for twelve years and when my lazy, life-sucking, daddy finally died, I swore to God with tears in my eyes I'd never marry one. And then I did. — Kathryn Stockett

Oh, it was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with. If I'd had a sister or a brother closer in age, I guessed that's what it would be like. But it wasn't just smoking or skirting around Mother. It was having someone look at you after your mother has nearly fretted herself to death because you are freakishly tall and frizzy and odd. Someone whose eyes simply said, without words, You are fine with me. — Kathryn Stockett

Why? Why are you hitting me?"
He leaned down and looked me right in the face.
"If I didn't hit you Minny, who knows what you become. — Kathryn Stockett

I sit in my little office and I feel like I've got all my readers staring at me. — Kathryn Stockett

Sorry is the fool who ever underestimates my mother. — Kathryn Stockett

I'd of told Scarlett to stick those green draperies up her white little pooper. Make her own damn man-catching dress. — Kathryn Stockett

That was the day my whole world went black. Air looked black. Sun looked black. I laid up in bed and stared at the black walls of my house ... .Took three months before I even looked out the window, see the world still there. I was surprised to see the world didn't stop. — Kathryn Stockett

I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it. — Kathryn Stockett

I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming - and it come in ever white child's life - when they start to think that colored folks ain't as good as whites ... I pray that wasn't her moment, Pray I still got time. — Kathryn Stockett

It's already 95 degrees outside. Mississippi got the most unorganized weather in the nation. — Kathryn Stockett

But the help always knows. — Kathryn Stockett

Some things I just got to keep for myself. — Kathryn Stockett

I never once heard her say she gone leave Leroy, and Minny don't say things twice. When she do things, they done the first time. — Kathryn Stockett

I feel like I'm selling something nobody want to buy. Something big and stinky, like Kiki Brown and her lemon smell-good polish. But what really makes me and Kiki the same is, I'm proud a what I'm selling. I can't help it. We telling stories that need to be told. — Kathryn Stockett

I'm sorry, but were you dropped on your head as an infant? — Kathryn Stockett

Got to be the worst place in the world, inside a oven. You in here, you either cleaning or you getting cooked. — Kathryn Stockett

I have decided not to die. — Kathryn Stockett

When you little, you only get asked two questions, what's your name and how old you is, so you better get em right. — Kathryn Stockett

I am not spending my final days in a hospital, nor will I turn my own house into one." Doctor — Kathryn Stockett

I'm tired of the rules," I say. — Kathryn Stockett

How tall are you, Constantine?" I asked, unable to hide my tears.
Constantine narrowed her eyes at me.
"How tall is you?"
"Five-eleven," I cried. "I'm already taller than the boys' basketball coach."
"Well, I'm five-thirteen, so quit feeling sorry for yourself. — Kathryn Stockett

Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today? — Kathryn Stockett

It can be really powerful to write something when you're sad. — Kathryn Stockett

But Lou Anne, she understood the point of the book before she even read it. The one who was missing the point this time was me. — Kathryn Stockett

President Kennedy's assassination, less than two weeks ago, has struck the world dumb. It's like no one wants to be the first to break the silence. Nothing seems important. — Kathryn Stockett

Things ain't never gone change in this town , Aibileen. We living in hell. Our kids is trapped. — Kathryn Stockett

Mother calls up the stairs to ask what in the world I'm typing up there all day and I holler down, 'Just typing up some notes from the Bible study. Just writing down all the things I love about Jesus. — Kathryn Stockett

When Demetrie got sick, we knew it was our responsibility to take care of her and pay her medical bills. And we embraced that. But the tricky part is, like so many families in the South, we also expected her to use a separate bathroom, to use separate utensils. — Kathryn Stockett

It was delicious to have someone to keep secrets with — Kathryn Stockett

All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries. — Kathryn Stockett

To say I have frizzy hair is an understatement. It is kinky, more pubic than cranial, and whitish blond, breaking off easily, like hay. — Kathryn Stockett

Babies love fat. — Kathryn Stockett

That's what I love about Aibileen, she can take the most complicated things in life and wrap them up so small and simple, they'll fit right in your pocket. — Kathryn Stockett

The first book you write because of the way it makes you feel. The second one you can't help but wonder how it's going to make the reader feel. — Kathryn Stockett

I want to read what you're thinking. I'm pretty sure it's not about housekeeping. — Kathryn Stockett

Miss Celia stares down into the pot like she's looking for her future. "Are you happy, Minny?"
"Why you ask me funny questions like that?"
"But are you?"
"Course I's happy. You happy too. Big house, big yard, husband looking after you." I frown at Miss Celia and I make sure she can see it. Because ain't that white people for you, wondering if they are happy ENOUGH. — Kathryn Stockett

I listened wide-eyed, stupid. Glowing by her voice in the dim light. If chocolate was a sound, it would've been Constantine's voice singing. If singing was a color, it would've been the color of that chocolate. — Kathryn Stockett

We must keep this a perfect secret. — Kathryn Stockett

Her house being small. They ain't rich folk, that I know. Rich folk don't try so hard. I'm used to working for young couples, but I spec this is the smallest house I ever worked in. It's just the one story. Her and Mister Leefolt's room in the back be a fair size, but Baby Girl's room be tiny. The dining room and the regular living room kind a join up. Only two bathrooms, which is a relief cause I worked in houses where they was five or — Kathryn Stockett

Everyone knows how we white people feel, the glorified Mammy figure who dedicates her whole life to a white family. Margaret Mitchell covered that. But no one ever asked Mammy how she felt about it. — Kathryn Stockett

I think about how no one in the car would come out and say it. We all know about these laws, we live here, but we don't talk about them. This is the first time I've ever seen them written down. — Kathryn Stockett

Why don't we just build you an house outside Hilly? — Kathryn Stockett

He let out a long sorry sigh and I love that look on his face, that disappointment. I understand now why girls resist,just for that sweet look of regret ... — Kathryn Stockett

[Crisco] ain't just for frying. You ever get a sticky something stuck in your hair,like gum? ... That's right, Crisco. Spread this on a baby's bottom, you won't even know what diaper rash is ... shoot, I seen ladies rub it under they eyes and on they husband's scaly feet ... Clean the goo from a price tag, take the squeak out a door hinge. Lights get cut off, stick a wick in it and burn it like a candle ... And after all that, it'll still fry your chicken. — Kathryn Stockett

You got nothing left here but enemies in the Junior League and a mama that's gonna drive you to drink. You done burned ever bridge there is. And you ain't never gone get another boyfriend in this town and everbody know it. So don't walk your white butt to New York, run it. — Kathryn Stockett

Stuart needs "space" and "time," as if this were physics and not a human relationship. — Kathryn Stockett

She dumb." I sigh. "But she ain't stupid. — Kathryn Stockett

I tucked this away, afraid to admit how good it was to hear it. — Kathryn Stockett

I tell myself that's what you get when you put thirty-one toilets on the most popular girl's front yard. People tend to treat you a little differently than before. — Kathryn Stockett

I get so mad at myself for being so weak! How can I love a man who beats me raw? Why do I love a fool drinker? One time I asked him, "Why? Why are you hitting me?" He leaned down and looked me right in the face. "If I didn't hit you, Minny, who knows what you become." I was trapped in the corner of the bedroom like a dog. He was beating me with his belt. It was the first time I'd ever really thought about it. Who knows what I could become, if Leroy would stop goddamn hitting me. — Kathryn Stockett

It smells like grade school - boredom, paste, Lysoled vomit. I — Kathryn Stockett

What if I'm stuck. Here. Forever. — Kathryn Stockett

Truth.
It feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that's been burning me up all my life.
Truth, I say inside my head again, just for that feeling. — Kathryn Stockett

Miss Skeeter say maybe don't spec nothing at all, that most Southern peoples is "repressed." If they feel something, they might not say a word. Just hold they breath and wait for it to pass, like gas. — Kathryn Stockett

I set her on her wooden baby seat so her little hiney don't fall in and soon as I turn my back, she off that pot running. — Kathryn Stockett

Cokes at Phi Delta Theta parties and — Kathryn Stockett

We go on in her room, where we like to set. I get up in the big chair and she get up on me and smile, bounce a little. "Tell me bout the brown wrapping. And the present." She so excited, she squirming. She has to jump off my lap, squirm a little to get it out. Then she crawl back up.
That's her favorite story cause when I tell it, she get two presents. I take the brown wrapping from my Piggly Wiggly grocery bag and wrap up a little something, like piece a candy, inside. Then I use the white paper from my Cole's Drug Store bag and wrap another one just like it. She take it real serious, the unwrapping, letting me tell the story bout how it ain't the color a the wrapping that count, it's what we is inside. — Kathryn Stockett

I guess we all get a little snippy when we're not feeling good. — Kathryn Stockett

It's Tuesday, change-the-damn-sheets day. If I don't do it today, that makes Wednesday change-the-damn-sheets day too. — Kathryn Stockett

No, white women like to keep their hands clean. They got a shiny little set a tools they use, sharp as witches' fingernails, tidy and laid out neat, like the picks on a dentist tray. They gonna take they time with em. — Kathryn Stockett