No gasp at a miracle that is truly miraculous because the magic lies in the fact that you knew it was there for you all along.

Suspended between the nastiness of life and the meanness of the dead, she couldn't get interested in leaving life or living it, let alone the fright of two creeping-off boys. Her past had been like her present—intolerable—and since she knew death was anything but forgetfulness, she used the little energy left her for pondering color.

Rainwater held on to pine needles for dear life and Beloved could not take her eyes off Sethe.

Her heart kicked and an itchy burning in her throat made her swallow all her saliva away. She didn't know which way to go.

Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn't allowed to be and stay what I was [...] School teacher changed me. I was something else and that something else was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub. (Paul D.)

You know, the kind who know Jesus by His first name, but out of politeness never use it even to His face.