skin & bones: a novel

by Renée Watson

Don’t marry the man you can’t live without. Marry the man you can live with.

marriage is not about love only. Love is a choice,

Every day I understand more and more that I am the harvest of my ancestors.

him. I fell in love with him because he didn’t ask me if I’d be ready—he knew it was only a matter of when.

A faith that isn’t intersectional is a faith I can’t believe in.

Nice enough is better than nothing.

You come from a people who know how to make do, you hear me? Everywhere Black people go they make do, figure out how to take better than nothing, make it more than enough.

I am not against dating a big guy. I just think sometimes big women don’t get treated like we have a choice, that we can choose.

Forty symbolizes the endurance of hardship to get closer to God.

Don’t you just love love?

thing about a group of women, banding together and in one accord, is that they become a wall, an iron shield.

daughters need to see how a brokenhearted woman heals.

love takes work, that love takes sacrifice,

Hurt is essential to love.

A woman should be allowed to take her time when it comes to who she’s giving her heart to.

Mainstream beauty standards knocking into me, bumping into me, hitting the same spot over and over. Making me tender, sore.

I shouldn’t have to lose weight in order for people to see my humanity, and no one should have to lose weight just to be able to wear a cute outfit.

forgiveness is a part of love.

Love is an investment. You’ve got to learn who to give your love to, who to invest in.

My mother loves me unconditionally. She never ever talked about my weight when I was a kid. Never put me on a diet. She has watched my body go up and down, down and up, my entire life. Always, she’s called me beautiful. I don’t question her love for me. I know she loves me. I also know that sometimes denial looks like love.

The thing no one tells you about being a mother is that sometimes you don’t know how, don’t have the energy, don’t know what you’re doing.

we were tired of being forced to wear skirts and dresses in the sanctuary all the time. I mean, it was such an outdated, ridiculous rule. We could wear pants at home, at school, everywhere and anywhere except in the church building. How silly was that? Old-school tradition.

Monitoring our bodies was never about God and modesty. It was about control and manipulation. And instead of telling the men in the church to control their desires, they tried to control our bodies.

Wondering the whole way home why the brilliance and boldness of Black girls is so often seen as defiance.

anyone can be a father but not everyone is a dad. Dad as in provider. Dad as in protector.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

I don’t know which is harder, being a Black girl or raising a Black girl.

there’s a difference between a person having a bad hair day and a person wishing they had different hair.

it’s not your responsibility to make anyone see your worth.

Friendship should not drain you.

love is always worth fighting for.

You can also show her that love is hard work. That true love—real love—is not only romance and good vibes. You can show her that it takes strength and wisdom to know who to give that energy to.

We always know what to tell someone else. Never got advice for ourselves.

in. Trust is earned, not given.

love is a risk, a trust in the uncertain, a walk of faith, a calculated gamble. Love is not about falling in, but growing in. It is a choice, a confidence not in the person you love, not in yourself, but in the surety that even if your heart breaks, it can heal.

This is beautiful

Change is quiet sometimes, still like water, but movement is happening.