Long Division Quotes

“People always say change takes time. It's true, but really it's people who change people, and then those people have to decide if they really want to stay the new people that they're changed into.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“In her own way, she was as compassionate and thoughtful as a girl could be, but her mind was stronger than yours and no one could ever really break her heart. You could sprain her heart, and her heart would bruise a lot, but it could never ever be broken. Never. I figured that there were probably 27 people like that in the world at one time and they were the only people who should be running for president of anything that mattered.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“The last time Shalaya Crump and I really talked, she told me, "City, I could love you if you helped me change the future dot-dot-dot in a special way.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“This writing thing, it ain’t like that hip hop shit, City. For li’l niggas like you,” he told me, “this writing thing is like a gotdamn porta potty. It’s one li’l nigga at a time, shitting in the toilet, funking up the little space he get. And you shit a regular shit or a classic shit. Either way,” he said. “City, you gotta shit classic, then get your black ass on off the pot.” He actually grabbed my hand. “You probably think I’m hyping you just for the money. It ain’t just about the money. It’s really not. It’s about doing whatever it takes for you to have your voice heard. So I don’t know what you’re writing in that book you always carrying around, but it better be classic because you ain’t gonna get no two times to get it right, you hear me?”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“4. If you push yourself hard in the direction of freedom, compassion, and excellence, you will recover.
True/False”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“when you get saved, act like you got some sense. You hear me? Whole lotta folks get saved and it take them an entire life before they start living by God’s word. That’s them ol’ deathbed conversioners, them ol’ heathens trying to get to heaven a lifetime too late.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“How do you get good at love when your family disappeared and every day it feels like you and your friends are getting written off the face of the earth?”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“I don’t know if we somehow got stuck in a dumb book or movie. Right now, I feel like we supposed to say, ‘Golly, let’s go save the grandfathers we never knew.’ But like you always say, life ain’t no book. This is real life. In real life, do we really need our granddaddies?”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“But the Bible was better than those other spinach-colored Classic books that spent most of their time flossing with long sentences about pastures and fake sunsets and white dudes named Spencer. I didn't hate on spinach, fake sunsets, or white dudes named Spencer, but you could just tell that whoever wrote the sentences in those books never imagined they'd be read by Grandma, Uncle Relle, LaVander Peeler, my cousins, or anyone I'd ever met.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“Black is not a vice. Nor is segregation a virtue.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“I took out my brush and got to brushing the waves on the back of my head.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“And I'm not trying to hate, but all his sentences could be shorter and more dynamic, too.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“Wow. You a real fat asshole for that right there. You don't know better than to throw rocks at love?”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“Wow. You a real fat asshole for that right there. You don't know better that to throw rocks at love?”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“You think I’m crazy, right? Well, I know that you can’t travel through time with a girl and save folks from the Klan and not kiss them unless you’re slightly deformed or unless you smell like death. And even then, there’s still gonna be some serious grinding going on. Serious grinding.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“My name is City. I’m not white, homeless, or homosexual, but if I’m going to keep it one hundred, I guess you should also know that LaVander Peeler smells so good that sometimes you can’t help but wonder if a small beast farted in your mouth when you’re too close to him.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“I swear that white folks need to just shut the hell up sometimes. Y'all make it hard for everybody.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“It was actually a museum. At least that's what the sign said. It read, "The Lerthon Coldson Civil Rights Museum." It made me kind of mad that the museum was named after a grimy drunk dude who called a girl "baby," but I figured lots of museums were named for part-time losers.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division