---
title: "3 Draft Quotes By Jesmyn Ward"
description: "3 Draft quotes by Jesmyn Ward. Plus more from Jesmyn Ward and more Draft sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/943/jesmyn-ward-1426_bones_i-wrote-the-first-draft-of-my-first-nove_296864.png"
---

> [I wrote the first draft of my first novel at Michigan, and then I wrote the first draft of 'Salvage the Bones'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-wrote-the-first-draft-of-my-first-novel-at-michigan-and-then-i/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/943/jesmyn-ward-1426_bones_i-wrote-the-first-draft-of-my-first-nove_296864.png)

> [Writing 'Men We Reaped' broke me in different ways at different spots in the drafting process. The first draft was hard because…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/writing-men-we-reaped-broke-me-in-different-ways-at-different-spots/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9ef/jesmyn-ward-1426_different-ways_writing-men-we-reaped-broke-me-in-differ_886366.jpg)

> [After I finished my first draft of 'Salvage the Bones,' I felt that I wasn't political enough. I had to be more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/after-i-finished-my-first-draft-of-salvage-the-bones-i-felt-that-i/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85a/jesmyn-ward-1426_community_after-i-finished-my-first-draft-of-salva_2753044.png)

## Other authors on Draft

## More by Jesmyn Ward

> [I wanted to write about voodoo tradition that I feel has been very important to survival of black people here: people of the African…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-wanted-to-write-about-voodoo-tradition-that-i-feel-has-been-very/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [I think that voodoo as a spiritual tradition has been demonized for so long in popular culture. I wanted to write against that and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-think-that-voodoo-as-a-spiritual-tradition-has-been-demonized-for/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [There's so much I love about home, but then there's a lot that I can acknowledge that I dislike about home. And acknowledging that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/there-s-so-much-i-love-about-home-but-then-there-s-a-lot-that-i-can/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [“The dream of her was the glow of a spent fire on a cold night: warm and welcoming.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/the-dream-of-her-was-the-glow-of-a-spent-fire-on-a-cold-night-warm/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [The first writer that I think of immediately that I studied with at Michigan is Peter Ho Davies. He was really important to me,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/the-first-writer-that-i-think-of-immediately-that-i-studied-with-at/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [I feel like so much of what happened in the Delta over the decades since slavery was abolished seems much closer in the Delta,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-feel-like-so-much-of-what-happened-in-the-delta-over-the-decades/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [“Vines catch my arms, my head; we tear through until we break out into the clearing before the fence, the field, the barn, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/vines-catch-my-arms-my-head-we-tear-through-until-we-break-out-into/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [“Before all the little mean things she told me gathered and gathered and lodged like grit in a skinned knee.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/before-all-the-little-mean-things-she-told-me-gathered-and-gathered/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [People give the South a bad rap. It's often stereotyped as backwards and close-minded and dogmatic, and all of those things have been true.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/people-give-the-south-a-bad-rap-it-s-often-stereotyped-as-backwards/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [By the time I wrote my memoir, 'Men We Reaped,' I had been running from writing it for a long time. When the events…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/by-the-time-i-wrote-my-memoir-men-we-reaped-i-had-been-running-from/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [When I was a teenager, I was the only black girl at a small, private Episcopal school, where my tuition was paid by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/when-i-was-a-teenager-i-was-the-only-black-girl-at-a-small-private/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [She was the murderous mother who cut us to the bone but left us alive, left us naked and bewildered as wrinkled newborn babies,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/she-was-the-murderous-mother-who-cut-us-to-the-bone-but-left-us-alive/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [I hope people who read my books feel empathy for us and really see us as complicated people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/i-hope-people-who-read-my-books-feel-empathy-for-us-and-really-see-us/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [When I was writing my first novel, 'Where the Line Bleeds,' which had young black men as its main characters, I was very invested…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/when-i-was-writing-my-first-novel-where-the-line-bleeds-which-had/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

> [“Lot of folks was in there for stealing food because everybody was poor and starving, and even though White people couldn’t get your work…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jesmyn-ward/lot-of-folks-was-in-there-for-stealing-food-because-everybody-was/)

[Jesmyn Ward](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jesmyn-ward/)

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