Цитаты из книги «Прислуга», страница 65

“I have decided not to die.”

“Stuart stands and says, 'Come here,' and he's on my side of the room in one stride and he claps my hands to his hips and kisses my mouth like I am the drink he's been dying for all day and I've heard girls say it's like melting, that feeling. But I think it's like rising, growing even taller and seeing sights over a hedge, colors you've never seen before.”

“We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.”

“He let out a long sorry sigh and I love that look on his face, that disappointment. I understand now why girls resist,just for that sweet look of regret....”

“I'm pretty sure I can say that no one in my family ever asked Demetrie what it felt like to be black in Mississippi, working for our white family. It never occurred to us to ask. It was everyday life. It wasn't something people felt compelled to examine.

I have wished, for many years, that I'd been old enough and thoughtful enough to ask Demetrie that question. She died when I was sixteen. I've spent years imagining what her answer would be. And that is why I wrote this book.”

“She already got the blue dress on I ironed this morning, the one with sixty-five pleats on the waist, so tiny I got to squint through my glasses to iron. I don’t hate much in life, but me and that dress is not on good terms.

“Womens, they ain't like men. A woman ain't gone beat you with a stick. ... No, white women's like to keep they hands clean. They got a shiny little set of tools they use, sharp as witches' fingernails, tidy and laid out neat, like the picks on a dentist tray. They gone take they time with em. ..." [Minny's intro to what you might expect if you cross your white female employer]”

- Я пришла домой. после того как меня выгнали, и все стояла у порога в своих новых рабочих туфлях. За эти туфли мама выложила столько. что хватило бы на оплату счетов за электричество за целый месяц. Наверное, в тот момент я поняла, что такое позор и какого он цвета. Позор вовсе не черный, как грязь, как я всегда думала. На самом деле позор - он цвета новенькой белой униформы, которую ваша мать гладила всю ночь, чистый, без единого пятнышка, будто ты вовсе никогда не работала.

Между школами для белых и цветных не должно происходить обмена книгами; книги используются представителями той расы, кто первым прикоснулся к ним.

И как не велела ему пить кофе, а то станет чернокожим. Он сказал, что по сей день не выпил ни чашечки кофе, а ведь ему уже двадцать один.