quotes

• Letter 1 - Pa to Celie

  'You gonna do what your mammy wouldn't'
• Letter 4 - Celie and Nettie

  'I tell Nettie to keep at her book'
• Letter 6 - Celie and Shug

  'When I dream, I dream of Shug Avery'
• Letter 7 - Celie and Pa

  'He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway'
• Letter 11 - Celie

  'I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive'
• Letter 12 - Celie

  'I don't fight, I stay where I'm told'
• Letter 16 - Harpo

  'His eyes be sad and thoughtful. His face begin to look like a woman face'
• letter 17 - Harpo and Sofia

  'They just be marching, hand in hand, like going to war'
• letter 19 - Celie to Harpo about Sofia

  'Beat her. I say'
• Letter 21 - Celie to Sofia

  'I say it cause you do what I can't'
• Letter 21 - Sofia to Celie about Harpo

  'I loves Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me'
• Letter 21 - Sofia

  'All the girls big and strong like me. Boys big and strong too, but all the girls stick together'
• Letter 21 - Sofia to Celie

  'Let's make quilt pieces out of these messed up curtains'
• Letter 22 - Shug

  'Talk bout slut, hussy, heifer and streetcleaner'
• Letter 22 - Shug to Celie

  'You sure is ugly, she say, like she ain't believed it'
• Letter 24 - Celie

  'I thought I had turned into a man'
• Letter 24 - Shug

  'She weak as a kitten. But her mouth just pack with claws'
• Letter 26 - Celie about Shug

  'I work on her like she a doll or like she Olivia - or like she mama'
• Letter 27 - Shug

  'She smile, like a razor opening'
• Letter 27 - Celie and Shug

  'I hand her the square I'm working on, start another one. She sew long crooked stitches, remind me of that little crooked tune she sing'
• Letter 29 - Harpo to Celie about Sofia

  'I want her to do what I say, like you do for Pa'
• Letter 30 - Sofia to Celie about Harpo

  'He don't want a wife, he want a dog'
• Letter 30 - Celie

  'Only time I feel something stirring down there is when I think bout Shug'
• Letter 31 - Celie and Sofia

  'At the last minute I decide to give Sofia the quilt'
• Letter 34 - Shug to Celie

  'I won't leave, she say, until I know Albert won't even think about beating you'
• Letter 35 - Shug to Celie

  'Why, Miss Celie, she say, you still a virgin'
• Letter 38 - Sofia to Celie

  'Every time they ast me to do something, miss Celie, I act like I'm you. I jump right up and do just what they say'
• Letter 41 - squeak

  'She stand up. My name Mary Agnes, she say'
• Letter 44 - Sofia to Celie

  'I spent fifteen minutes with my children'
• Letter 50 - Celie

  'I stumble bout the house crazy for Mr blood. In my mind, he falling dead every which way'
• Letter 50 - Celie

  'I don't know nothing, I think. And glad of it'
• Letter 55 - Nettie

  'teaching me to learn for myself, by reading and studying and writing a clear hand'
• Letter 56 - Nettie

  'there is one big advantage we have. We are not white. We are not Europeans. We are black like the Africans themselves. And that we and the Africans will be working for a common goal: the uplift of black people everywhere'
• Letter 60 - Celie

  'A needle and not a razor in my hand, I think'
• Letter 62 - Nettie

  'A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something'
• Letter 65 - Olinka people

  'We will fight the white man, they said. But the white man is not alone, said the chief. He has brought his army'
• Letter 69 - Shug to Celie

  'Shug say, us each other's peoples now, and kiss me'
• Letter 73 - Celie

  'Dear Nettie, I don't write to God no more, I write to you'
• Letter 73 - Shug

  'I believe God is everything, say Shug'
• Letter 73 - Shug

  'I think it pisses God off if you walk by The Color Purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it'