Chore Quotes & Sayings

That's one of the things Yardem used to tell me that actually made sense. He said that you don't go through grief like it was a chore to be done. You can't push and get finished quicker. The best you can do is change the way you always do, and the time comes when you aren't the same person who was in pain. — Daniel Abraham

He looked up to the gods but never accepted their eternal superiority. For better or worse, plotting their overthrow was the only aspiration that stoked the fires of destiny. Such an exalted ambition was worthy of a man who had long accomplished the chore of dominating human minds. A man so terrified of finding himself alone in a stratosphere where no one could understand just how exceptional he was. In that place, the presumed existence of gods was a great comfort, especially in a profession in which his rivals were mere mortals. — Taona Dumisani Chiveneko

It dawned on me I had just ordered the Prince of Teravinea to perform the menial labor of a scullery maid. At first I was ashamed at giving him such an assignment, but when I glanced over at him I noted he was completely engrossed in his chore. I had to turn my face and hide the smile that came to my lips. Only with concentrated effort did I manage to stifle my snicker. — D. Maria Trimble

I think she'll like me," I said, concerned that my own mother wouldn't like me. My fear exposed the unspoken shame of all families: if you didn't know the people you were related to, would you befriend them? In the days when families hunted and gathered, this wouldn't be a question worth pondering, but once butchering a mammoth stopped being a household chore, we began to suspect families are chain gangs held together by manacles of DNA. — Bob Smith

I feel the American's eyes on me, looking as though I'm more than an amputee, a number, a chore. He crosses over to me, his strides large, a broad smile on his lips. "Veda? Did I say your name right?" "Yes, Doctor." "Call me Jim. Please." His left hand in his pocket, he holds his right hand out to me. As though we're equals. "Thank you, Doctor - I mean - just Jim," I say. He chuckles. "Haven't done anything yet." He has. No older man ever invited me to shake hands. No other adult ever asked me to call them by name. He even said "please" although I'm a patient. — Padma Venkatraman

When we start a new task, or confront an unpleasant chore, we should take a moment to ask ourselves "why. — Charles Duhigg

When you're a father in a marriage, you sort of become the mother's assistant. And you sort of get a list from her every day and you run down the list and it feels very much like a chore. — Louis C.K.

I love the finished product, but I find working in the studio a chore - I use an old-fashioned setup, so the recording process can be frustrating. — Max Tundra

Stay away from thoughts of perfectionism; don't turn this opportunity into a chore. — Erin Ramsey

The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to achieving your dreams. — Og Mandino

The superior officer raised his ice-blue eyes, then went back to his chore without exhibiting any particular emotion. If the colonel was involved in the affair, Sharko thought, if he had kept up with the news following the discovery of the bodies in Gravenchon, he would certainly know Sharko's face, who he was. If so, had he been steeling himself for this visit since the corporal on guard had called ahead? Or had he simply not recognized him? — Franck Thilliez

Whatever work you undertake to do in your lifetime, it is very important that first you have a passion for it - you know, get excited about it - and second, that you have fun with it. That's important. Otherwise, you see, your work becomes nothing but an idle chore. Then, you hate the life you live. — Julius Sumner Miller

[S]tudies show that one of the best ways to lift your mood is to engineer an easy success, such as tackling a long-delayed chore. — Gretchen Rubin

It is in recognizing the actual presence of God that we find prayer no longer a chore, but a supreme delight. — James Gordon Lindsay

Because the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage. And if he has none, he is more than a coward. He is a sellout and a fink and a heretic, because writing is a holy chore. — Harlan Ellison

Noise and crowds have a way of siphoning our energy and distracting our attention, making prayer an added chore rather than a comforting relief — Charles R. Swindoll

Forgiveness is not an easy chore to undertake, nor is it for the weak. I forgive you, God, for leaving me out here to figure out all of this on my own. Yet forgiveness is the daily minimum requirement for a healthy, fulfilling, and meaningful life. I forgive my mind for believing that what was is what always has to be. — Iyanla Vanzant

Maybe if we all just tried to put pieces back together as soon as they fell out of place, the puzzles in our lives would feel more like an accomplishment than a chore — Megan Bostic

I think it's important for those of us in a position of responsibility to be firm in sharing our experiences, to understand that the babies out of wedlock is a very difficult chore for mom and baby alike ... I believe we ought to say there is a different alternative than the culture that is proposed by people like Miss Wolf in society ... And, you know, hopefully, condoms will work, but it hasn't worked. — George W. Bush

Some people are good at being in love. Some people are good at love. Two very different things, I think. Being in love is the romantic part - sex all the time, midday naps in the sheets, the jokes, the laughs, the fun, long conversations with no pauses, overwhelming separation anxiety ... Just the best sides of both people, you know? But love begins when the excitement of being in love starts to fade: the stress of life sets in, the butterflies disappear, the sex becomes a chore, the tears, the sadness, the arguments, the cattiness ... The worst parts of both people. But if you still want that person by your side through all of those things ... that's when you know - that's when you know you're good at love. — Nick Miller

I know writers for whom the act of writing is a necessary chore. They suffer to write great work. I am very lucky that for me writing is a delight. — Denise Duhamel

I think for me I've always loved being in the water and I love training and I love being at the pool so you know it's not a chore for me to go training, but come race day I would never just train to train - I train to race. — Stephanie Rice

A secret, like a chore, always seems to lead to another, one even more troublesome than the first. — Bette Lord

Explaining belief has alwayas been difficult. How do you explain a love and a logic at the heart of the universe when the world is so out of whack? Explaining faith is impossible - vision over visibility - instinct over intellect - a songwriter plays a chore with the faith that he will hear the next one in his head. — Edward De Bono

I remember when I thought of singing as the bit that went between the guitar playing - something I couldn't wait to get out of the way. Singing was originally like a chore that I didn't really enjoy. — Eric Clapton

To combat the monotony of gym workouts, I started playing soccer. I looked at workouts as training sessions. My soccer training includes squats, pushups, resistance-band work, and sprints. Ninety minutes of running became part of my love of the game rather than a chore. — Adam Richman

One cardinal rule of American journalism is that The New York Times Sunday Magazine is a chore, a bore, and a penance to be endured. — Martin Nolan

One day you'll meet someone who will consume your very soul. When you meet that person, you'll know. And if that person ever tries to leave you, fight for them, because once they're gone, life will become a chore. — Belle Aurora

Milkers don't spend half as long with their mothers." Eli spread his chore coat over Little Joe. "Not more than a few weeks. Sometimes one day. Maybe not even ... If you were a peeper, it'd be even worse. They don't even get to see their mamas. They're still jelly beans when they're left alone to hatch. — Sandra Neil Wallace

If you have to dry the dishes (Such an awful boring chore) If you have to dry the dishes ('Stead of going to the store) If you have to dry the dishes And you drop one on the floor Maybe they won't let you Dry the dishes anymore — Shel Silverstein

I'm not saying I didn't have a great 2008. I just made it a chore. I made it look laborious. — Katie Hoff

Loving someone isn't a hard task, it's not a chore, you don't wake up one day and decide to break their heart because you got all hot and bothered, that doesn't happen! he boomed. — Holly Hood

I'd made these experimental films but I thought the major chore of a filmmaker was to relate to actors. — Bill Forsyth

missions. A moment later she heard the sound of the television start up. The clever little thing had worked out how to use the remote control. 'Not till August,' said Lauren. 'We've got lots to sort out. Visas and so on. We'll have to find an apartment, a nanny for Jacob.' A nanny for Jacob. 'Job for me.' Rob sounded a little nervous. 'Oh, yes, darling,' said Rachel. She did try to take her son seriously. She really did. 'A job for you. In real estate, do you think?' 'Not sure yet,' said Rob. 'We'll have to see. I might end up being a house husband.' 'So sorry I never taught him how to cook,' said Rachel to Lauren, not especially sorry. Rachel had never been much interested in cooking or that good at it; it was just another chore that had to be done, like the laundry. The way people went on these days about cooking. 'That's okay,' beamed Lauren. 'We'll probably eat out a lot in New York. The city that never sleeps, — Liane Moriarty

Every time a child organizes and completes a chore, spends some time alone without feeling lonely, loses herself in play for an hour, or refuses to go along with her peers in some activity she feels is wrong, she will be building meaning and a sense of worth for herself and harmony in her family. — Barbara Coloroso

Reading is not work, not a chore, not a drudgery; reading is the most joyful thing, yet, in the world. — James Patterson

Practice, which some regard as a chore, should be approached as just about the most pleasant recreation ever devised. — Babe Didrikson Zaharias

You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice. — Steven D. Woodhull

TV was entertainment of the last resort. There was nothing on during the day in the summer other than game shows and soap operas. Besides, a TV-watching child was considered available for chores: take out the trash, clean your room, pick up that mess, fold those towels, mow the lawn ... the list was endless. We all became adept at chore-avoidance. Staying out of sight was a reliable strategy. Drawing or painting was another: to my mother, making art trumped making beds. A third choir-avoidance technique was to read. A kid with his or her nose in a book is a kid who is not fighting, yelling, throwing, breaking things, bleeding, whining, or otherwise creating a Mom-size headache. Reading a book was almost like being invisible - a good thing for all concerned. — Pete Hautman

I like what I do. Some writers have said in print that they hated writing and it was just a chore and a burden. I certainly don't feel that way about it. Sometimes it's difficult. You know, you always have this image of the perfect thing which you can never achieve, but which you never stop trying to achieve. But I think ... that's your signpost and your guide. You'll never get there, but without it you won't get anywhere.
[Interview with Oprah Winfrey, June 5, 2007] — Cormac McCarthy

I do have a chore schedule - in my mind. I don't tell anyone I have it, but it's in my mind. — David Alan Basche

Sophia looked down her long nose at the girl. "Who are you?"
"I'm Abigail, ma'am," she said, curtsying. "This is my brother, Jamie. I apologize for him."
Sophia arched an eyebrow. "I'll wager you do that quite a lot."
Abigail sighed, sounding world-weary. "Yes, I do."
"Good girl." Sophia almost smiled. "Younger brothers can be a chore sometimes, but one must persevere."
"Yes, ma'am," Abigail said solemnly.
"Come on, Jamie," Alistair said. "Let's go into dinner before they form a Society for Bossy Older Sisters. — Elizabeth Hoyt

My love for cooking began when I was young. Because my parents were in the army, they were both really busy. A lot of times I'd have to cook for the family; I'd rotate with my siblings. It started out as a chore, but as I got older, my mom started to see that I was really good at it. I became her sous chef. — Tia Mowry

I don't really like to arrange shows by best performances. That's why Emmy season is kind of a chore for me. Unlike movies, where it's easier to decide who was the best performance, a TV show goes up and down, including characters/portrayals. — Hank Stuever

It won't be a chore, it will be a garden,' Holena said. — Jeannie Mobley

I'm still in the Midwest, but I'm in Columbus, Ohio, so I'm three and a half hours away from everybody. That's one of the reasons we're not as active as we'd like to be - it's an expensive chore for me to go down there just to talk or something. — David Pajo

I always say that keeping abreast of science should never be seen as a chore. It should be something you do naturally. I don't sit there reading 'New Scientist,' putting post-it notes next to ideas. — Alastair Reynolds

Occasionally I go shopping for clothes, but I find the whole thing a real chore. — Catherine McCormack

Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn't matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us. Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true inside your soul, and I promise - you can make anything. So please calm down now and get back to work, okay? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes. — Elizabeth Gilbert

It's a chore for a fellow to fear for his life more than once in an evening. — T. R. Pearson

Full of the usual blights, mistakes, ruinous beetles and parasites, glorious for one week, bedraggled the next, my actual garden is always a mixed bag. As usual, it will fall far short of the imagined perfection. It is a chore. Hard work. I'll by turns aggressively weed and ignore it. The ground I tend sustains me in early summer, but the garden of the spirit is the place I go when the wind howls. This lush and fragrant expectation has a longer growing season than the plot of earth I'll hoe for the rest of the year. Raised in the mind's eye, nurtured by the faithful composting of orange rinds and tea leaves and ideas, it is finally the wintergarden that produces the true flowering, the saving vision. — Louise Erdrich

Maintaining one's vigilance against biases is a chore - but the chance to avoid a costly mistake is sometimes worth the effort. — Daniel Kahneman

But there she was, standing next to his mother, so beautiful, so radiant that he could not see anyone else.
Suddenly the rest of the world seemed like such a chore. He didn't want to be here at this dance, with people he didn't want to talk to and messages he didn't particularly wish to deliver. He didn't want to dance with young ladies he didn't know, and he didn't want to make polite conversation with people he did. He just wanted Billie, and he wanted her all to himself.
He forgot about Tallywhite. He forgot about pease, porridge, and pudding, and he stalked across the room with such single-minded purpose that the crowds seemed to melt from his path.
And somehow, amazingly, the rest of the world had not yet noticed her. She was so beautiful, so uncommonly alive and real in this room full of waxen dolls. She would not go undiscovered for long.
But not yet. Soon he would have to fight the throngs of eager young gentlemen, but for now, she was still his alone. — Julia Quinn

To the old saying that man built the house but woman made of it a 'home' might be added the modern supplement that woman accepted cooking as a chore but man has made of it a recreation. — Emily Post

It's not about the money. It's about the love! Do what you do because it brings joy to yourself and others. When it starts to become more about money and less about the people and your own personal happiness, that's when it becomes a chore. At that point your drive as well as the quality of your product will start to slack. I feel if you're truly enjoying what you do and are enriching the lives of others, you've already won. — Vanna B.

I'll have periods when I write and periods when I don't. But you don't want it to become a discipline, really. If it becomes a discipline, it becomes a chore, and that's no good. To make art you need to be inspired. — Greg Lake

Getting healthy doesn't have to be a chore. The Five Rivers Journey requires minimal extra effort for the maximum results! — Dev Lahli

Annabel played and sang it; she was the oldest of the sisters and the loveliest, though it was a chore to pick among them, for they were like quadruplets of unequal height. One thought of apples, compact and flavorful, sweet but cider-tart; their hair, loosely plaited, had the blue luster of a well-groomed ebony racehorse, and certain features, eyebrows, noses, lips when smiling, tilted in an original style that added humor to their charms. The nicest thing was that they were a bit plump: "pleasingly plump" describes it precisely. — Truman Capote

I don't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it's just a chore, like any other. — Joshua

I continue to write. It's just one of those things that I do. I'll have periods when I write and periods when I don't. But you don't want it to become a discipline really. If it becomes a discipline, it becomes a chore and that's no good. — Greg Lake

Starting the Day
The Legacy Letters
By Carew Papritz
Sometimes we make being happy so difficult. And being thankful such a chore. Starting the day like a job we hate. Beginning it like swallowing ten tablespoons of devil-made cough syrup. Because somehow along the way we forget that being alive and healthy and happy are noble goals-or just good ideas. And that the opposite of being alive is being dead. What a choice. — Carew Papritz

There's one post-Christmas chore I love-writing thank-you letters ... Lots of companies for many reasonable reasons, I guess, have a policy against sending even Christmas cards, never mind things, at Christmastime. But our clan gets a big kick out of opening the Warner-Lambert box containing an assortment of their wares; we argue over which of the boys is to get the Union Oil Co. necktie [and] all the holiday long we play the marvelous Christmas music sent by Goodyear ... None of these things means that Forbes or Forbeses have been had. But all of us like being thought of. — Malcolm Forbes

Their inability to disengage from work in the evening deprives them of the only possible respite from labor, and life without some kind of rest is torture. The worst irony is that taking care of the verminous Gregor is a filthy chore. Gregor, by escaping work, has not only forced his former dependents into labor, but has become work: disgusting work that only his disgraced family can perform. — Franz Kafka

Having spent all of my teens and my twenties partying hard (very hard) then working the next day, I can assure you that losing bit of sleep to feed the thing you love most in the world is not a chore at all. Since having a baby I am better rested than ever. Sure, I can't party any more but I don't need to. Because I am happy. — James Mullinger

You could never tell if he was with you or not, so Cooley liked to talk to him just in case. Just to remind them both that this was still a human being. He never wanted to catch himself treating Jack like a thing, a chore to be done. — Leonard Pitts Jr.

I have said time and again there is no place on this earth to which I would not travel, there is no chore I would not undertake if I had any faintest hope that, by so doing, I would promote the general cause of world peace. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Turn it over to the universe daily.. but it should never be a chore. — Rhonda Byrne

If I had to control what I was speaking, it would be a chore. Right now I just feel I've got my shoes off, everybody comes in, I talk. If I was an actor it could be a problem, but right now I just talk all the crap, I can badmouth anybody I want, I can say what I want and move on. — Tarsem Singh

Love-based parenting elevates the importance of the relationship to the highest position. No homework assignment, no chore, and no social etiquette is ever more important than the parent-child relationship. Maintaining connectedness and attunement, thereby sustaining the balance of love of self and love of child, is the primal outcome of every interaction the parent has with the child. When this is achieved, the other less significant items will take care of themselves. The ultimate challenge in reaching this goal is that children both want and need autonomy (independence), yet they are biologically engineered to be in relationships and to belong (dependence). This clash between the two is compounded by American culture where there is a powerful emphasis on the individual rather than — Heather T. Forbes

I find it is a challenge being a student athlete, but I am the kind of individual that loves challenges. I see this as my job rather than a chore so it makes it easier to get through the day. Regular students don't spend 4 hours at the track, 2 in the training room and they especially don't have to watch everything they eat. I enjoy what I do immensely and take the good with the bad. — Perdita Felicien

Standing is stupid,
Crawling's a curse,
Skipping is silly,
Walking is worse.
Hopping is hopeless,
Jumping's a chore,
Sitting is senseless,
Leaning's a bore.
Running's ridiculous,
Jogging's insane-
Guess I'll go upstairs and
Lie down again. — Shel Silverstein

My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint. — Erma Bombeck

If sleeping was a chore a lazy person would be awake forever. — Matshona Dhliwayo

If you aren't having fun, you are doing it wrong. If you feel like getting up in the morning to work on your business is a chore, then it's time to try something else. — Richard Branson

Our children start out as good readers and will remain so if the adults around them nourish their enthusiasm instead of trying to prove themselves. If we stimulate their desire to learn before making them recite out loud; if we support them in their efforts instead of trying to catch them out; if we give up whole evenings instead of trying to save time; if we make the present come alive without threatening them with the future; if we refuse to turn pleasure into a chore but nurture it instead. If we do all this, we ourselves will rediscover the pleasure of giving freely
because all cultural apprenticeship is free. — Daniel Pennac

Doing it all the time, whether or not we are in the mood, gives us ownership of our writing ability. It takes it out of the realm of conjuring where we stand on the rock of isolation, begging the winds for inspiration, and it makes it something as do-able as picking up a hammer and pounding a nail. Writing may be an art, but it is certainly a craft. It is a simple and workable thing that can be as steady and reliable as a chore - does that ruin the romance? — Julia Cameron

Amedeo loved thick tomes, and in tackling them he felt the physical pleasure of undertaking a great task. Weighing them in his hand, thick, closely printed, squat, he would consider with some apprehension the number of pages, the length of the chapters, then venture into them, a bit reluctant at the beginning, without any desire to perform the initial chore of remembering the names, catching the drift of the story; then he would entrust himself to it, running along the lines, crossing the grid of the uniform page, and beyond the leaden print the flame and fire of battle appeared, the cannonball that, whistling through the sky, fell at the feet of Prince Andrei, and the shop filled with engravings and statues where Frederic Moreau, his heart in his mouth, was to meet the Arnoux family. Beyond the surface of the page you entered a world where life was more alive than here on this side ... — Italo Calvino

The middle-class ladder has rungs that no longer exist for many trying to climb higher. Instead, for too many, in too many places, their chore is simply trying to hang on. — Mike Barnicle

It's hard to shoot anything in L.A.; it's just a chore, but they're great here. — Joel Silver

The other thing that distinguishes a project from a chore is that a project is supposed to be fun. For — J. David Cox

I try to read, but my attention span is so bad, and ever since Netflix was invented, that's all I do in my spare time, which is really bad, but it's like a chore to read for me. — Eliot Paulina Sumner

In the end, the real wisdom of menopause may be in questioning how fun or even sane this chore wheel called modern life actually is. — Sandra Tsing Loh

I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it. — Elmore Leonard

If we could see, even for a split second, the depths of God's love for us - all we'd want to do is worship and prayer would never seem a chore. — Mark Hart

Even the smallest daily chore can be humanized with the harmony of culture. — Alvar Aalto

Reading should be a pleasure, not a chore. — Joan Rivers

EXERCISE IS A PART OF LIFE, NOT A CHORE — Jennifer L. Scott

READING SHOULD NOT BE PRESENTED TO CHILDREN AS A CHORE OR A DUTY. IT SHOULD BE OFFERED TO THEM AS A PRECIOUS GIFT. — Kate DiCamillo

Then I reminded myself that I was always willing to listen to arguments in favor of avoiding an unpleasant chore, and I shook my head. — Michael Chabon

Life and whatever you do in your time in this world should not be a chore. You will be spending a lot of time doing it anyway. Every moment should be fuelled by your passion. It's your reason. It's your why. — Kevin Abdulrahman

Cooking was not a chore for Tengo. He always used it as a time to think - about everyday problems, about math problems, about his writing, or about metaphysical propositions. He could think in a more orderly fashion while standing in the kitchen and moving his hands than while doing nothing. — Haruki Murakami

My other chore is to buy a tree- a thankless task. The only truly well-proportioned Christmas trees are the ones they use in advertisements. If you try and find one in real life you face inevitable disapointment. Your tree will lean to the left or the right. It will be too bushy at the base, or straggly at the top. Even if you do, by some miracle, find a perfect tree, if won't fit in the car and by the time you strap it to the rooftop and drive it home the branches are broken and twisted out of shape. You
wrestle it through the door, gagling on pine needles and sweating profusely, only to hear the maddening question from countless Christmases past: 'Is that really the best one you could find? — Michael Robotham

How soon, sugar, the terrible becomes routine. We've all got this dangerous built-in talent: for turning horrors into errands. You hear folks wonder how the Germans could have done it? I believe part of the answer is: They made extermination be a nine-to-five activity. You know, salaries? Lunch breaks? And the staff came and did their job and went home and ate supper and slept and woke and came back and did their job and went home and ate their supper and slept and woke and came back and did their job.
That's partly how you get anything done, especially a chore what's dreadful, dreadful.
Honey? we've all got to be real careful of what we can get used to. — Allan Gurganus

Camp life is demanding, and even the simplest daily routine becomes a chore in a climate with 90 per cent humidity, not to mention the bugs. — Stefanie Powers

Pa never told stories like Grandpa. Or treated the barn like family. Eli knew how Grandpa's own pa had built the barn by hand, hauling bluestone for the foundation behind a stubborn ox with horns as wide as a tractor. How the smell of the plank walls was like family and how you never washed your chore coat so the animals would smell that you were family, too. — Sandra Neil Wallace

You make this sound like a chore for you, like a job. This ... ," he pressed his fingers to my heart, "it's about love for me
undying, unwavering, unrelenting love. A love that won't let me move on, it won't let me get over you. I don't want to focus on the sickness that could replace you in my heart. I don't want to think of what will happen if I stop fighting for you, for us. But, sometimes I feel like I'm alone in this fight. — Jordan Deen

I'm up there trying to do my Chore. I've got the men's bathroom. There's something ... Pat there's something in the toilet up there. That won't flush. The thing. It won't go away. It keeps reappearing. Flush after flush. I'm only here for instructions. Possibly also protective equipment. I couldn't even describe the thing in the toilet. All I can say is if it was produced by anything human then I have to say I'm worried. Don't even ask me to describe it. If you want to go up and have a look, I'm 100% confident it's still there. It's made it real clear it's not going anywhere. — David Foster Wallace

You listen to the street traders any morning. They don't shout, 'Nearly-fresh oranges, only slightly squashy, reasonable value,' do they? No, they shout, 'Git chore orinjes, they're luvverly.' Good business sense." He — Terry Pratchett

It's such a wonderful feeling to watch a child discover that reading is a marvelous adventure rather than a chore. I know that many writers for children say they do not write specifically with a child audience in mind ... This isn't true for me. I am very aware of my audience. Sometimes I can almost see them out there reacting as I write. Sometimes I think, 'Oh, you're going to like this part. — Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Black life is ambiguous, and a kaleidoscope of meanings, rich, multi-sided ... we have frozen our vision in figures that caricature, at best the complexity of our lives and leave the real artistic chore of interpretation unfinished. — Charles Bartlett Johnson