18 Quotes by Heidi W. Durrow

The bottle is where everything sad or mean or confusing can go. And the blues – it’s like that bottle. But in the bottle there’s a seed that you let grow. Even in the bottle it can grow big and green. It’s full of all those feelings that are in there, but beautiful and growing too.

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

We lie to ourselves in many ways; we write down only what we want to understand and what we want to see.

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

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.

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.

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

I think what a family is shouldn’t be so hard to see. It should be the one thing people know just by looking at you.

These white girls think all they need is love.