Meridian Quotes

The town of Chicokema did indeed own a tank. It had been bought [...] when the townspeople who were white felt under attack from "outside agitators"—those members of the black community who thoug...

"But the Civil Rights Movement changed all that!""I seen rights come and I seen 'em go [...] You're a stranger here or you'd know that this is for the folks that work in that guano plant outside to...

All she had to do, wrote Henry, was "lay back and be pleasured." But she [...] had gone outside the home to seek her "pleasuring," while still expecting him to foot the bills. (1.1.29)

"They're grateful people," said Meridian. "They appreciate it when someone volunteers to suffer." (1.1.74)

It was her father's voice that moved her, that voice that could come only from the life he lived. A life of withdrawal from the world, a life of constant awareness of death. (1.1.121)

But for all that her father sang beautifully, heartbreakingly, of God, she sensed he did not believe in Him in quite the same way her mother did. (1.1.122)

Meridian was conscious always of a feeling of guilt, even as a child. Yet she did not know of what she might be guilty. (1.4.1)

And so, while not enjoying it at all, she had had sex as often as her lover wanted it, sometimes every single night. (1.7.4)