The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman Quotes

“Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“My master jecked up my dress and gived my mistress the whip and told her to teach me a lesson. Every time she hit me she asked me what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown. She hit me again: what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“We ain't giving up," I said. "We done gone this far.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“Ain't we all been hurt by slavery?”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“That's man's way. To prove something. Day in, day out he must prove he is a man. Poor Fool.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“If I ain’t nothing but trouble, you ain’t nothing but Nothing.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“had two reasons. Ned was by himself in this world, except for me, and I didn’t want no man and no children spiting him just because he was an orphan. The other reason I never looked at a man, I was barren. An old woman on the place had told me that. I went to her one day and told her how my body act and didn’t act. After we had sat down and talked a while, she said one word: “Barren.” I went to a doctor and he told me the same thing: “You barren, all right.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“like Ned was killed. We made her go and we hired”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“Memories wasn't a place, memories was in the mind.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman