Jewel Quotes

“I felt on my back gentle pats like fragile wings just touching me, touching me: my grandchildren's hands.”
― Bret Lott, Jewel

“Your momma and daddy leave you at some point, and then you are on your own.”
― Bret Lott, Jewel

“men were off the road and onto our yard now, their eyes never yet looking up to us; men I couldn’t place from anywhere. I looked behind me to Momma, saw her there with a hand to her face, covering her eyes, the other hand at her throat and holding on to the collar of her dress. I turned to the sound of the men on the porch steps, felt myself backing up too. The four of them moved toward me, struggling with the burden they bore, the wool blanket seeming heavier than”
― Bret Lott, Jewel

“wet, faces white, jaws set with the weight of whatever lay in the doubled-up gray wool blanket they toted, one man to a corner, the middle sagging, nearly touching ground with each step they took. They wore only undershirts and blue jeans, all of them barefooted, their feet red with the dust of the road they’d walked. I wasn’t afraid, not even when Momma, behind me, whispered, “Oh,” then, louder, “Oh. Oh.” I heard her take one step back, then another, but there she stopped.”
― Bret Lott, Jewel

“I saw Tory's face as I took my beating. I saw myself pulled up by Pastor from the Pearl River, wet and shaking and miserable in the Lord, Missy Cook on the bank and crying tears meant for nothing but effect, and I knew then I was no better than my grandmother, knew no matter how hard you prayed, no matter how shiny the stones in your pocket, no matter how far behind you you thought your old lives were, they were never gone. They were never more than an inch from the surface, battling every moment you breathed, each and every moment of every day fighting to rise up and take you over. And I'd lost, let those old lives win just now.”
― Bret Lott, Jewel