Home > Author > Ernest J. Gaines
21 " Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow. "
― Ernest J. Gaines , A Gathering of Old Men
22 " Do I know what a man is ? Do I know how a man is supposed to die ? I’m still trying to find out how a man should live. Am I supposed to tell someone how to die who has never lived ? "
― Ernest J. Gaines , A Lesson Before Dying
23 " ...my heart may have been in it but my soul was not. "
― Ernest J. Gaines , Conversations with Ernest Gaines
24 " Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One. "
― Ernest J. Gaines , The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
25 " I tried to decide just how I should respond to them. Whether I should act like the teacher that I was, or like the nigger that I was supposed to be. "
26 " It was the kind of "here" your mother or your big sister or your great-aunt or your grandmother would have said. It was the kind of "here" that let you know this was hard-earned money but, also, that you needed it more than she did, and the kind of "here" that said she wished you had it and didn't have to borrow it from her, but since you did not have it, and she did, then "here" it was, with a kind of love. It was the kind of "here" that asked the question, When will all this end? When will a man not have to struggle to have money to get what he needs "here"? When will a man be able to live without having to kill another man "here"? "
27 " I think it's God that makes people care for people, Jefferson. I think it's God makes children play and people sing. I believe it's God that brings loved ones together. I believe it's God that makes trees bud and food grow out of the earth. "
28 " If I ain’t nothing but trouble, you ain’t nothing but Nothing. "
29 " Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write. "
― Ernest J. Gaines ,
30 " The artist must be like a heart surgeon. He must approach something with sympathy, but with a sort of coldness and work and work until he finds some kind of perfection in his work. You can't have blood splashing all over the place. Things must be done very cleanly. "
31 " I don't care what a man is. I mean, a great artist is like a great doctor. I don't care how racist he is. If he can show me how to operate on a heart so that I can cure a brother, or cure someone else, I don't give a damn what the man thinks; he has taught me something. And that is valuable to me. And that is valuable to others and man as a whole. "
32 " Well, in San Francisco if someone's against you, they know how to vote you out of an area. If someone's against you in Louisiana, or if I wrote a book and they did not like it or me in Louisiana, they might shoot me anytime. "
33 " We ain't giving up," I said. "We done gone this far. "
34 " The heavier the burden, the longer they look at you. And Miss Julie looked at me a long, long time. "
― Ernest J. Gaines , Of Love and Dust
35 " both of them, then he leaned over and pulled back the raincoat for a second, and flung it back with the same fury. Now he was "
― Ernest J. Gaines , The Tragedy of Brady Sims
36 " It came from a piece of old wood that he found in the yard somewhere. That's what we all are, Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood, until we—each one of us, individually—decide to become something else. I am still that piece of drifting wood, and those out there are no better. But you can be better. Because we need you to be and want you to be. "
37 " good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man good by mr wigin im gon ax paul if he can bring you this sincely jefferson "
38 " I hope when I die, they won't put on my tombstone, 'He wrote Miss Jane Pittman.' Put anything else, but don't put just that. "
39 " We've only been living in these ghettos for seventy-five years or so, but the other three hundred years -- I think this is worth writing about. I think we've made tremendous sacrifices, we've shown tremendous strength. In the ghetto you see a lot of frustration; you see very little strength. "
40 " Writing is too goddamned hard for me to think about a soul in teh world ... I don't think about a soul, but just try to get those goddamned characters to act right. "