Push Quotes

“Depression is anger turned inward.”
― Sapphire, Push

“Mother to Son

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor -
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a'climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now -
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
- Langston Hughes (112)”
― Sapphire, Push

“Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow." - The Talmud”
― Sapphire, Push

“Listen baby, Muver love you. Muver not dumb. Listen baby: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.

Thas the alphabet. Twenty- six letters in all. Them letters make up words. Them words everything.”
― Sapphire, Push

“I say I drownin' in river. She don't look me like I'm crazy but say, If you just sit there the river gonna rise up drown you! Writing could be the boat carry you to the other side. (97)”
― Sapphire, Push

“How that is so I don't know. How Mama and Daddy know me sixteen years and hate me, how a stranger meet me and love me. (131)”
― Sapphire, Push

“How is something a memory if you never forgit?”
― Sapphire, Push

“Is life a hammer to beat me down?”
― Sapphire, Push

“Some folks got a light around them that shine for other peoples. I think that maybe some of them was in tunnels, and in that tunnel, maybe the only light they had was inside of them. And then, even long after they escaped that tunnel... They still be shining for everybody else.”
― Sapphire, Push

“I feel like my blood a giant river swell up inside me and I'm drowning. My head all dark inside. Feel like giant river I never cross in front me now. Ms Rain say, You not writing Precious. I say I drownin' in river. She don't look me like I'm crazy but say, If you just sit there the river gonna rise up drown you! Writing could be the boat to carry you to the other side.”
― Sapphire, Push

“Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers: "Grow, Grow".”
― Sapphire, Push

“I bite my fingernails till they look like disease, pull strips of my skin away. Get Daddy's razor out cabinet. Cut cut cut arm wrist, not trying to die, trying to plug myself back in. (111)”
― Sapphire, Push

“I wanna say I am somebody. I wanna say it on subway, TV, movie, LOUD. I see the pink faces in suits look over top of my head. I watch myself disappear in their eyes, their tesses. I talk loud but still I don't exist.”
― Sapphire, Push

“I, how to describe a feeling so deep it's like a river? How can a river be wrong?”
― Sapphire, Push

“How that is so I don't know. How Mama and Daddy know me sixteen years and hate me, how a stranger meet me and love me.”
― Sapphire, Push

“One thing I say about Farrakhan and Alice Walker they help me like being black. I wish I wasn't fat but I am. Maybe one day I like that too, who knows.”
― Sapphire, Push

“Almost all instruction seems to revolve around language ac-(Jermaine spelling now) "q, a-kwi-si-tion acquisition!" ("What that?" I ask. "You know, to get. Language acquisition, to get some language.")”
― Sapphire, Push

“...knew how I got pregnant. I been knowing... I’m twelve now, I been knowing about that since I was five or six, maybe I always known about pussy and dick. I can’t remember not knowing.”

“I wanna say I am somebody... I talk loud but still don’t exist.”

“Sometimes I wish I was not alive. But I don’t know how to die. Ain’t no plug to pull out. ‘N no matter how bad I feel my heart don’t stop beating and my eyes open in the morning.”

“November was my birthday, I don’t tell nobody so don’t nobody know. But I light a candle for myself. I glad Precious Jones was born.”
― Sapphire, Push

“Show me what's inside the crystal ball. She look at it a long time then say, Ahh Negrita, you don't want to know.”
― Sapphire, Push

“Ms Rain say people who help you most (sometimes) is ones in the same boat.”
― Sapphire, Push

“He look like a bitch just got a train pult on her. He don’t know what to do. He try to recoup, be cool, say, “Well, if you want to learn, calm down—” “I’m calm,” I tell him. He say, “If you want to learn, shut up and open your book.” His face is red, he is shaking. I back off. I have won. I guess.”
― Sapphire, Push

“My students and I knew that their poverty was the result of a race, class, and gender system skewed against them. They were poor and uneducated by design, from de facto segregated school systems to gender discrimination and violence. The system was not just stacked against them; it was falling down upon them and crushing them.”
― Sapphire, Push