Joy Jenkins Quenga

“Dignity can only be surrendered, and when it is gone, we are like the snail who has lost its shell.”
― Stacey Lee, The Downstairs Girl

“Standing in another's shoes is good for our own postures.”
― Stacey Lee, The Downstairs Girl

“Caroline spends her grief by the dollar, until her purse empties and she's down to nickel hiccups and penny whimpers.”
― Stacey Lee, The Downstairs Girl

“We all must abide by the rules, but some of us must follow more than others...Like Sweet Potato and her twisted leg, we have been born with a defect--the defect of not being white. Only, unlike Sweet Potato's case, there is no correcting it. There is only correcting the vision of those who view it as a defect, though not even a war and Reconstruction have been able to do that.”
― Stacey Lee, The Downstairs Girl