The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat Quotes

“Something Mama liked to say: “I love Jesus, but some of his representatives sure make my ass tired.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“I called up to Mama, "Is this a miracle?" She raised and lowered her shoulders. Her voice drifted down, "Maybe. Or maybe this is just what's supposed to be.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“I was free to appreciate the quiet and the way the yellowish-gray light of the rising sun entered the room, turning everything from black and white to color. The journey from Kansas to Oz right in my own kitchen.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“That’s the ugliest dress in the whole world.” Odette replied, “My grandmama made it for me. She’s real good at sewin’, but she’s blind.” She popped another piece of candy into her mouth and added, “This ain’t the ugliest dress in the world. I’m gonna wear that one tomorrow.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“As far back as I can remember, Beatrice and Glory been usin’ Jesus as an excuse to be bitches.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“Mama sneered at them. “I know you and Clarice are friends, but you can’t tell me you don’t wanna slap the livin’ shit outta that mother of hers. Talk about somebody with her head stuffed way up her own ass. And that sister of hers is just as bad. As far back as I can remember, Beatrice and Gory been usin’ Jesus as an excuse to be bitches.” She wagged her finger at them and, like they could hear her, said, “That’s right, I said it!”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“Later, Barbara Jean would remember looking at those eyes and thinking, This must be what the sky looks like if you see it through a diamond.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“I looked around for that welcoming light I'd heard about, but I didn't see it. Instead, everything around me seemed to glow and shimmer in the sunlight. I heard beautiful sounds-not the voices of dead loved ones, but the laughter and singing of my children when they were tiny. I saw James, young and shirtless, chasing them through Mama's garden. Off in the distance I saw Barbara Jean and Clarice, and even myself when we were kids, dancing to music pouring out of my old pink and violet portable record player. Here I was with my fingers brushing up against the frame of the picture I'd been painting for the last fifty-five years, and my beautiful, scarred husband, my happy children, and my laughing friends were right there with me.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“The three of us stood there on Big Earl’s lawn, regarding each other with the kind of expression that could have broken out into a face-splitting grin just as easily as it could have collapsed into tears. A feeling passed between us that didn’t need words, an understanding that there was no other place on earth that we should be right then, no one else we could quite so fully share this strange and beautiful day. We squeezed closer to each other and leaned our foreheads together, forming our own tight, private triangle.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“What we call miracles is just what's supposed to happen.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“That's what you'll think about when you pass, you know. How good your man was, how you loved your children. How your friends made you laugh till you cried. That's what flows through your mind when the time comes. Not the bad things.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“Mama let out a snort. “Talk about a nerve. I guess she’s too good for my house now. She oughta try to sell that bullshit to some folks who don’t remember where she came from. And what kind of ‘working’ did she do to get outta Leanin’ Tree? All she did was outlive her lowlife daddy. Odette, tell her your mama’s back and that she’s fixin’ to haunt the fuck outta her. Go on, tell ‘er.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

“Our annual January get-together was a long-running tradition, going back to the first year of our marriage. The truth, even though he denies this, is that the first party was an attempt by James to prove to his friends that I wasn’t as bad a choice of a mate as I seemed. Richmond and Ramsey—and others, most likely—had warned James that a big-mouthed, hot-tempered woman like me could never be properly tamed. But James was determined to show them that I could, on occasion, be as domestic and wifely as any other woman. I suspect he’s still trying to convince them.”
― Edward Kelsey Moore, The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat