“In one of the novel’s most dramatic and revealing chapters, Hattie leaves August with the older children and escapes with baby Ruthie… — Ayana Mathis Children Copy Share Image
I think being consistent is really important. In the arts there's a misconception that you sit around waiting for the muse to… — Ayana Mathis Art Copy Share Image
I think of my success as a kind of fluke. How else could I possibly think of it? And although it's a… — Ayana Mathis Amazing things Copy Share Image
You have to find a way of shutting the future out and focusing on the writing. One of the problems I'll have… — Ayana Mathis Book Copy Share Image
I'm wary of being put in boxes. But at the same time, it's important that I embrace my identity as a writer… — Ayana Mathis Embrace Copy Share Image
“Half of what’s wrong with people today is that they ain’t got no place to go that makes them peaceful. I don’t… — Ayana Mathis Willie Copy Share Image
“Bell lifted her hand to her chest. Her heart beat so quickly. She was floating out on a tide of agony, and… — Ayana Mathis Heart beat Copy Share Image
Racial terrorism affects the lives of white people and black people and everyone, everything. Racism is contaminating. It can affect the dogs… — Ayana Mathis Black Copy Share Image
“Hattie’s children died in the order in which they were born: first Philadelphia, then Jubilee.” — Ayana Mathis Children Copy Share Image
“Six understood in that instant that he had something the ministers wanted and it had given him power among them. He had… — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
I really, deeply believe in the primacy of character. I believe that my job as a writer is to put a believable… — Ayana Mathis Believable Copy Share Image
“I go above deck to watch the sky darken into twilight. It helps me remember that this strange place is still the… — Ayana Mathis Nature Copy Share Image
“Bell had been disdainful of them; she’d thought them small and ordinary. She’d taken such pleasure in saying no to their proposals… — Ayana Mathis Married men Copy Share Image
“Hattie clambered from the train, her skirt still hemmed with Georgia mud, the dream of Philadelphia round as a marble in her… — Ayana Mathis Dreams Copy Share Image
Even if you don't feel like sitting down to write or working on that big proposal, or whatever it is, just show… — Ayana Mathis Bigs Copy Share Image
Certainly I had from an early age a sense of the power and beauty of religious texts - the awesome magnitude of… — Ayana Mathis Accepting Copy Share Image
I think that people have some sort of vision that everybody is moving towards perfection, and that there is some sort of… — Ayana Mathis Alive Copy Share Image
“But she was gone, and Hattie wanted to give her babies names that weren’t already chiseled on a headstone in the family… — Ayana Mathis Family Copy Share Image
“At home they thought of white people as a vague but powerful entity--like the forces that control the weather, that capable of… — Ayana Mathis Race Copy Share Image
All of us, writers and non-writers alike, have incredible well-springs of personal experience and history. And we also have imagination - which… — Ayana Mathis History Copy Share Image
“It was important to do what needed doing, no matter the day or the circumstance.” — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
“His soul was susceptible to god's whimsy, just as his body was susceptible to any opportunistic thing that might hurt it. If… — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
“I couldn't stand to be a fool a second time,' Hattie said. 'I couldn't stand it.” — Ayana Mathis Time Copy Share Image
My book has a pre - civil rights setting with a post - civil rights sensibility. I believe less and less that… — Ayana Mathis Believe Copy Share Image
