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1 " Black Mary: Leroy. And John. And Cujoe. And Sam. And Robert. One after the other they come and they go. You can't hold on to none of them. They slip right through your hands. They use you up and you can't hold them. They all the time taking till it's gone. They ain't tried to put nothing to it. They ain't got nothing in their hand. They ain't got nothing to add to it. They too busy taking. They taking 'cause they need. You can't blame them for that. They so full of their needs they can't see you. Now here you come. You don't even know what you need. All you see is a woman. You can't see nothing else. You can't think nothing else. That blinds you. (Black Mary turns to him. A new thought occurs to her.)Okay, Mr. Citizen. I'll come to your room tonight. But the morning got to come, Mr. Citizen. What you got then? You tell me tomorrow. You wake up and look at your hands and see what you got. Citizen: I got me. That's all there is. Black Mary: That ain't never gonna be enough. "
― August Wilson , Gem of the Ocean
2 " Aunt Esther: You think you supposed to know everything. Life is a mystery. Don't you know life is a mystery? I see you still trying to figure it out. It ain't all for you to know. It's all an adventure. That's all life is. But you got to trust that adventure. "
3 " Sometimes you find bad luck and good luck in the same place. "
4 " Some people carry their luck with them and people got to find it. "
5 " You jumped but I'm falling too. "
6 " In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. "
7 " Sometimes you're lucky and you don't even know it. "
8 " You die how you live. "
9 " Eli: Freedom is what you make it. Solly: That's what I'm saying. You got to fight to make it mean something. "
10 " I seen a man grab hold to a fellow and cut off his arm. Cut it off at the shoulder. He had to work at it a while...but he cut it clean off. The man looked down saw his arm gone and started crying. After that he more dangerous with that one arm than the other man is with two. He got less to lose. There's a lot of one-arm men walking around. "
11 " I give you sugar for sugar And salt for saltIf you can't get along with me It's your own damn fault. "
12 " Go in prayer. "
13 " Aunt Ester: He didn't care if anybody else knew if he did or not. He knew. He didn't do it for the people standing around watching. He did it for himself. He say I'd rather die in truth than to live a lie. That way he can say that his life is worth more than a bucket of nails. What is your life worth, Mr. Citizen? That what you got to find out. You got to find a way to live in truth. If you live right you die right. "
14 " God say different things. Say, “I will smite my enemies.” Then he tell you to, “Turn the other cheek.” That don't getyou nothing but two broke jaws. "
15 " They say they needed that. Say the colored man got a right to life. Say they was fighting against slavery. I askedthem what took them so long. My daddy fought against slavery all his life. (...) They was real serious about it. I knew all them guns wasn't on account of me. I figurethey was fighting for themselves. And if that would help them that would help us. "
