The Color Purple Quotes

Part 1

Quote 1: "He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. But I don't never git used to it. And now I feels sick every time I be the one to cook." Part 1, pg. 11

Quote 2: "But me, never again. A girl at church say you git big if you bleed every month. I don't bleed no more." Part 1, pg. 15

Quote 3: "Well, next time you come you can look at her. She ugly. Don't even look like she kin to Nettie. But she'll make the better wife. She aint smart either, and I'll just be fair, you have to watch her or she'll give away everything you own. But she can work like a man." Part 1, pg. 18

Quote 4: "I don't say nothing. I think bout Nettie, dead. She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don't fight, I stay where I'm told. But I'm alive." Part 1, pg. 29

Quote 5: "Well how you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children. You have to let 'em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating." Part 1, pg. 42

Part 2

Quote 6: "What the world got to do with anything, I think. Then I see myself sitting there quilting tween Shug Avery and Mr. ______. Us three set together gainst Tobias and his fly speck box of chocolate. For the first time in my life, I feel just right." Part 2, pg. 61

Quote 7: "First time somebody made something and name it after me." Part 2, pg. 75

Quote 8: "All the men got they eyes glued to Shug's bosom. I got my eyes glued there too. I feel my nipples harden under my dress. My little button sort of perk up too. Shug, I say to her in my mind, Girl, you looks like a real good time, the Good Lord knows you do." Part 2, pg. 82

Quote 9: "When I see Sofia I don't know why she still alive. They crack her skull, they crack her ribs. They tear her nose loose on one side. They blind her in one eye. She swole from head to foot. Her tongue the size of my arm, it stick out tween her teef like a piece of rubber. She can't talk. And she just about the color of a eggplant." Part 2, pg. 87

Quote 10: "They calls me yellow
like yellow be my name
They calls me yellow
Like yellow be my name
But if yellow is a name
Why aint black the same
Well, if I say Hey black girl
Lord, she try to ruin my game" Part 2, pg. 97

Part 3

Quote 11: "White folks is a miracle of affliction, say Sofia." Part 3, pg. 103

Quote 12: "And when I come here, say Shug, I treated you so mean. Like you was a servant. And all because Albert married you. And I didn't even want him for a husband, she say. I never really wanted Albert for a husband. But just to choose me, you know, cause nature had already done it. Nature said, You two folks, hook up, cause you a good example of how it sposed to go. I didn't' want nothing to be able to go against that. But what was good tween us must have been nothing but bodies, she say. Cause I don't know the Albert that don't dance, can't hardly laugh, never talk bout nothing, beat you and hid your sister Nettie's letters. Who he? I don't know nothing, I think. And glad of it." Part 3, pg. 117

Quote 13: "Oh, Celie, there are colored people in the world who want us to know! Want us to grow and see the light! They are not all mean like Pa and Albert, or beaten down like ma was. Corrine and Samuel have a wonderful marriage. Their only sorrow in the beginning was that they could not have children. And then, they say, 'God' sent them Olivia and Adam. Part 3, pg. 124

Part 4

Quote 14: "The boys now accept Olivia and Tashi in class and more mothers are sending their daughters to school. The men do not like it: who wants a wife who knows everything her husband knows? they fume. But the women have their ways, and they love their children, even their girls." Part 4, pg. 157

Quote 15: "Oh Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly. Pray for us." Part 4, pg. 169

Quote 16: "Yeah, I say, and he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won't ever see again. Anyhow, I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown." Part 4, pg. 175

Quote 17: "Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain't. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up flowers, wind, water, a big rock. / But this hard work, let me tell you. He been there so long, he don't want to budge. He threaten lightening, floods and earth-quakes. Us fight. I hardly pray at all. Every time I conjure up a rock, I throw it." Part 4, pg. 179

Quote 18: "I am making some pants for you to beat the heat in Africa. Soft, white, thin. Drawstring waist. You won't ever have to feel too hot and overdress again. I plan to make them by hand. Every stich I sew will be a kiss." Part 4, pg. 192

Part 5

Quote 19: "Samuel and I are truly happy, Celie. And so grateful to God that we are! We still keep a school for the littlest children; those eight and over are already workers in the fields. In order to pay rent for the barracks, taxes on the land, and to buy water and wood and food, everyone must work. So, we teach the young ones, babysit the babies, look after the old and sick, and attend birthing mothers. Our days are fuller than ever, our sojourn in England already a dream. But all things look brighter because I have a loving soul to share them with." Part 5, pg. 214

Quote 20: "Celie, she say, Do you love me? She down on her knees by now, tears falling all over the place. My heart hurt so much I can't believe it. How can it keep beating, feeling like this? But I'm a woman. I love you, I say. Whatever happen, whatever you do, I love you." Part 5, pg. 221

Quote 21: "Took me long enough to notice you such good company, he say. And he laugh. / He ain't Shug, but he begin to be somebody I can talk to." Part 5, pg. 241

Quote 22: "I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering bout the big things and asting bout the big things you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know noting more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love."Part 5, pg. 247

Quote 23: "I feel a little peculiar round the children. For one thing they grown. And I see they think me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old and don't know much what going on. But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt." Part 5, pg. 251