Ann Petry

“Sometimes I look at my own movies”

— Ann Petry

A man hasn't got a corner on virtue just because his shoes are shined.

— Ann Petry

“This was, by comparison, a safe, secure, clean world. And looking at it, she thought it must be rather pleasant to be…

— Ann Petry

“She held the paper in her hand for a long time, trying to follow the reasoning by which that thin ragged boy…

— Ann Petry

“The attendant looked at Camilo, looked at Link, blandly, incuriously. Link thought, In New York all the black boys who go in…

— Ann Petry

All life goes in a circle, around and around, you started at one place, and then came right back to it again.

— Ann Petry

“Doesn't the female always take what she wants and at the same time try to hang on to what she already has?”

— Ann Petry

“She supposed the young colored men of Link's generation couldn't have manners like Mr. Powther's, though she didn't know why. Wars and…

— Ann Petry

All truly great art is propaganda.

— Ann Petry

Folks differs, dearie. They differs a lot. Some can stand things that others can't. There's never no way of knowin' how much…

— Ann Petry

Everything you ever had, everything you ever lost. It's all there in the trumpet--pain and hate and trouble and peace and quiet…

— Ann Petry

“The women work because the white folks give them jobs—washing dishes and clothes and floors and windows. The women work because for…

— Ann Petry

“And she got the feeling that Boots Smith's relationship to this swiftly moving car was no ordinary one. He wasn't just a…

— Ann Petry

“The snow fell softly on the street. It muffled sound. It sent people scurrying homeward, so that the street was soon deserted,…

— Ann Petry

“Streets like the one she lived on were no accident. They were the North’s lynch mobs, she thought bitterly; the method the…

— Ann Petry

“Her voice had a thin thread of sadness running through it that made the song important, that made it tell a story…

— Ann Petry

If I were a maker of perfumes, I would make one and call it 'Spring,' and it would smell like this cool,…

— Ann Petry

“Well, of course," Camilo said, and grinned back at JohnRolandJoseph and his long line of bought and paid for ancestors, as friendly…

— Ann Petry

“All marriages are like this. The component parts are contempt and irritation because we know each other by heart, by rote; we're…

— Ann Petry

Black was bestlooking. ... Ebony was the best wood, the hardest wood; it was black. Virginia ham was the best ham. It…

— Ann Petry

“A cop on a motorcycle roared alongside, waved them to the curb. 'Goin' to a fire?' he demanded. He peered into the…

— Ann Petry

“She's scared, he thought. She's scared deaf, dumb, and blind. She thinks I'm going to rape her. I'm due to rape her,…

— Ann Petry