Heidi W. Durrow Quotes

A ghetto has tall buildings and empty lots, trash all over the street and city noise. Here the houses are two stories; the houses have trees in front and everyone has a yard. I always told Tracy she was wrong, but now I think Tracy was right. The ghetto looks different in different places, but if you live there, it makes you feel the same.

A woman made of parts is a dangerous thing. You never know when she'll throw away a piece you may need.

I don't know if it's better to have people laugh at what you are or just not understand.

When the song is over, she bows and I clap. I wonder how come she seems so brave. There is no part of her she hides. Lakeisha sits with me now on the bed and says,"Wanna hear a story?" I don't have to say yes before she tells me .

I think of how Grandma makes fun of love. And maybe that's the key.

I will not be sad. I will be okay. Those promises become my layers. The middle that no one will touch.

The way Grandma paints her dream for me, there's a low sky.

Seeing Grandma this way, it makes me know for certain that everything about a person will show up in another person in the family.

That makes me think of how the other black girls in school think I want to be white. They call me an Oreo. I don't want to be white. Sometimes I want to go back to being what I was. I want to be nothing.

It's easy to smile just to make other people feel better. But when a person fakes happy, it has edges. Regular people may not see, but the people who count, they can see the edges and the lines where your smile ends and the real you, the sadness (me) or the anger (Grandma) begins.

Aunt Loretta doesn't look like herself, but she doesn't look broken.

I'm not the color of my skin. I'm a story. One with a past and a future unwritten.

We live in the same house but we both feel lonely. We and lonely don't belong in the same sentence.