“God doesn't come to sit on the porch and sip lemonade. He comes to take over.” — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
“It had been easy to be comfortable with each other when there was a glass wall between them.” — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
One thing I am learning is to slow down. Multitasking is great, but I when try to do everything at warp speed… — Ayana Mathis Ends Copy Share Image
“The Lord brings us into this world naked, but I don’t suppose he means us to stay that way” — Ayana Mathis God Copy Share Image
“Sala, waking up to the sun and finding her mother groomed, could try to forget the night before. There were many things… — Ayana Mathis Mother Copy Share Image
The ways in which theological constructs pose questions about what it is to be a human being on this earth are deeply… — Ayana Mathis Agree Copy Share Image
“I take in great lungfuls of air. Atom by atom, the oxygen enters my blood and pumps in waves through my veins;… — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
“Eudine did not reply. She was indecipherable, so ageless and immaculate. Her eyes were the same caramel shade as her skin. Her… — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
“You ought to go now before she wakes up,” Hattie said. She handed her daughter to Pearl. I’m in the floor, she… — Ayana Mathis Children Copy Share Image
There is a forgotten black middle class in America - a group which is huge but underrepresented in the media and in… — Ayana Mathis Art Copy Share Image
I try to find the beauty in things. On dark days, I sit in my armchair looking at clouds and I am… — Ayana Mathis Armchairs Copy Share Image
“It seemed to him that every time he made one choice in his life, he said no to another. All of those… — Ayana Mathis Life Copy Share Image
I like to say I had a very varied undergraduate education. I was an English major first, and then at the end… — Ayana Mathis College Copy Share Image
“I know all of her moods and the way they play across her features, but I am still awed at the configuration… — Ayana Mathis Love Copy Share Image
At some point I just acknowledged, at least to myself, that I had a great deal of respect for people of faith.… — Ayana Mathis Church Copy Share Image
“At last, her mother and sisters exited the station and came to stand next to her. “Mama,” Hattie said. “I’ll never go… — Ayana Mathis Mother Copy Share Image
“The thing to do was to insult her or slap her or run her out into the night. She’d left him with… — Ayana Mathis Another man Copy Share Image
Voice isn't fixed or unmalleable, it adapts to the characters you are creating and the story being told. I suppose in some… — Ayana Mathis Character Copy Share Image
In America, and no doubt elsewhere, we have such a tendency toward the segregation of cultural products. This is a black book,… — Ayana Mathis Barriers Copy Share Image
“I have looked at my father many times and wondered how he could stand knowing he was my mother’s ruin. He was… — Ayana Mathis Father Copy Share Image
“His pain was his most precious and secret possession, and Six held on to it as fiercely as a jewel robbed from… — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
“I probably always will be. But I’ve been mad all my life, and I finally figured out that I couldn’t keep carrying… — Ayana Mathis Life Copy Share Image
I think a lot about race and the burdens of representation. There's an idea that because I'm writing a book set around… — Ayana Mathis Black Copy Share Image
“God had indeed set it twirling and twisting every which way when he put black people to owning their own kind.” — Ayana Mathis Black people Copy Share Image
“Hattie was like a lake of smooth, silvered ice, under which nothing could be seen or known.” — Ayana Mathis Lake Copy Share Image
