Ruby Quotes

“If you brave enough to live it, the least I can do is listen.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Hope was a dangerous thing, something best squashed before it became contagious.”
― Cynthia bond, Ruby

“Your daddy and me named you Otha. It means 'wealth'. You were your daddy's treasure from the time you were born until he died. He used to say there were rubies buried deep inside of you. Remember, baby, don't never let a man mine you for your riches. Don't let him take a pickax to that treasure in your soul. Remember, they can't get it until you give it to them.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ruby knew then that a lie could only control a person if they believed it.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ain’t nobody ever gone answer you cries. You can fill a well with tears, and all you gonna get is drowned. You sit there long enough and the crazy man find you. You weep too long, your heart ache so, the flesh slip off your bones and your soul got to find a new home. You wait on answers ’til the scaredy-cat curl up in your belly and use your liver for a pin cushion. And that’s just how you die.O”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Those yellow eyes had seen the thing Ruby hid, even from herself. And when two people see a thing, for better or worse, it becomes real.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“He wanted to tell her that he had seen a part of the night sky resting in her eyes and that he knew it because it lived in him as well. He wanted to tell her about the knot corded about his heart and how he needed her help to loose the binding.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Don't let sorrow steal 'way truth.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ephram took her hand, “But I’ll tell you what. I’m most interested in the woman you have yet to be.”O”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Remember, baby, don’t never let a man mine you for your riches. Don’t let him take a pickax to that treasure in your soul. Remember, they can’t get it until you give it to them. They might lie and try to trick you out of it, baby, and they’ll try. They might lay a hand on you, or worse, they might break your spirit, but the only way they can get it is to convince you it’s not yours to start with. To convince you there’s nothing there but a lump of coal.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“maybe devilment was catching. Maybe crazy was a cold you caught.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Teach them to see it, teach them by doing. But if you can’t, if you done give your treasure away, if you find it hard to make your way in the dark of your own soul, if you forget who you really are, know that it comes back to you when the lie they give you die. That lie don’t die easy, and sometimes it take you with it. But for all that, your bounty yet waits for you to claim it.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Lately, he’d felt like his bones were God’s kindling. That God must be awfully cold to set so many fires.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“You know boy, I coulda been your daddy, but the fella in line behind me had correct change.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“When she’d stepped from the red bus, the porch had crowded her with their eyes. Hair pressed and gleaming like polished black walnut. Lipstick red and thick, her cornflower blue sundress darted and stitched tight to her waist. Ephram had watched her light a cigarette and glare down at the crowd on the market porch in such a way that made folks feel embarrassed for breathing. Chauncy Rankin had said later, “Not only do her shit not stink, way she act, she ready to sell it by the ounce.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“A piece of thunder broke off and rolled about on the forest floor.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“a lie could only control a person if they believed it.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ruby saw the walls of her own soul, saw things sparkling there she had never thought to look upon. Pictures of women, old, ancient with eyes like eagles, hands with love burning. She saw Maggie. There were sparkling lights lining the walls, gemstones gleaming.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“As Ephram waited for the pain, he saw Ruby as she used to be, the first time he'd seen her. The sweet little girl with long braids. The kind of pretty it hurt to look at, like candy on a sore tooth.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“She made it in that pocket of time before dawn, when the aging night gathered its dark skirts and paused in the stillness.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Maybe crazy was a cold you caught.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“She’d smelled like sweat, ammonia and Tootsie Pops.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“But the eyes of men were too strong, and the continued spitting and snickering of Gubber Samuels anchored him against the tug of mercy.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ephram watched as Miss P went to give the girl a hug. Ruby bristled and inched back, shaming the older woman into converting her gesture into straightening Tabasco bottles on a nearby shelf.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“The broken femur of her soul, reset without a proper splint.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ruby would never have discovered Page Three and Abby, had it not been for the ease of older women.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Ain't nobody ever gone answer your cries. You can fill a well with tears, and all you gonna get is drowned. You sit there long enough and the crazy man find you. You weep too long, your heart ache so, the flesh slip off you bones and your soul got to find a new home. You wait on answers 'til the scaredy-cat curl up in your belly and use your liver for a pin cushion. And that's just how you die. Ascared and waiting. And death find your ghost wailing for help. In the life, if someone promise you aid, they a lie. If someone offer they hand, check five time ten to see where they hide the bill. You ain't nobody but alone. And God come to those with the fight to find It. Ain't nothing easy. Not for the likes of you.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“She made it in that pocket of time before dawn, when the aging night gathered it's dark shirts and paused in the stillness. She made it with twelve eggs, still warm and flecked with feathers. She washed them and cracked them, one at a time, holding each golden yolk in her palm as the whites slid and dropped through her open fingers. She set them aside in her flowered China bowl. In the year 1974, Celia Jennings still cooked in a wood burning stove, she still used a whisk and muscle and patience to beat her egg whites into foaming peaks. She used pure vanilla, the same sweet liquid she had poured into Saturday night baths before their father, the Reverend Jennings, arrived back in town. The butter was from her churn, the confectioners sugar from P & K. And as she stirred the dawn into being, a few drop of sweat salted to batter. The cake baked and rode with the sun.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“John Imig, Damon O’Neil and Jason Parker of Swork Coffee, for the life-sustaining elixir, and for allowing me to rest, type and weep for hours into months into years.”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby

“Don’t let him take a pickax to that treasure in your soul. Remember,”
― Cynthia Bond, Ruby