The Color Purple gives insight into the life of African American women in the South during the early 20th century.
The book centers around Celie, a young girl subjected to relentless abuse.
But she rises above her adversities to discover her unique voice and self-worth.
The book delves deep into themes of sexism, racism, and power structures, portraying an unflinching account of Celie’s journey from victimhood to empowerment.
It also involves transforming from silence to expressing herself through letters to God and her sister.
The Color Purple Quotes With Page Numbers
“You got to fight them, Celie, she say. I can’t do it for you.
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 21
“I don’t say nothing. I think bout Nettie, dead. She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don’t fight, I stay where I’m told. But I’m alive.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 21
“He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he don’t never hardly beat them. He say, Celie, git the belt. The children be outside the room peeking through the cracks. It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That’s how come I know trees fear man.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 22
“All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I’d have to fight in my own house. She let out her breath. I loves Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I’ll kill him dead before I let him beat me.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 39
“Well, sometime Mr —— git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.
You ought to bash Mr —— head open, she say. Think bout heaven later.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 41
“She look like she ain’t long for this world but dressed well for the next.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 44
“She look so stylish it like the trees all round the house draw themself up tall for a better look.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 44
“His little whistle sound like it lost way down a jar, and the jar in the bottom of the creek. P. 64”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 66
“I can’t fix my mouth to say how I feel.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 88
“‘Tea’ to the English is really a picnic indoors.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Page 137
“The Olinka girls do not believe girls should be educated. When I asked a mother why she thought this, she said: A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something.
What can she become? I asked.
Why, she said, the mother of his children.
But I am not the mother of anybody’s children, I said, and I am something.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Page 154
“Time moves slowly, but passes quickly.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Page 163
“A grown child is a dangerous thing.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Page 166
“Who am I to tell her who to love? My job just to love her good and true myself. P. 237”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 167
“Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 184
“There is so much we don’t understand. And so much unhappiness comes because of that.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Page 190
“Let ’im hear me, I say. If he ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a different place, I can tell you.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 191
“…have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 192
“But it ain’t easy, trying to do without God even if you know he ain’t there, trying to do without him is a strain”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 192
“Here’s the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don’t know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit. It? I ask. Yeah, It. God ain’t a he or a she, but a It. But what do it look like? I ask. Don’t look like nothing, she say. It ain’t a picture show. It ain’t something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you cam feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found it.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 194
“I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found It.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 194
“Here’s the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And some-times it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don’t know what you looking for l. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, Lord. Feeling like shit.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 194
“Here’s the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don’t know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit.
It? I ast.
Yeah, It. God ain’t a he or a she, but a It.
But what do it look like? I ast.
Don’t look like nothing, she say. It ain’t a picture show. It ain’t something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found It.
Shug a beautiful something, let me tell you. She frown a little, look out cross the yard, lean back in her chair, look like a big rose. She say, My first step from the old white man was trees. Then air. Then birds. Then other people. But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed. And I laughed and I cried and I run all around the house. I knew just what it was. In fact, when it happen, you can’t miss it. It sort of like you know what, she say, grinning and rubbing high up on my thigh.
Shug! I say.
Oh, she say. God love all them feelings. That’s some of the best stuff God did. And when you know God loves ’em you enjoys ’em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that’s going, and praise God by liking what you like.
God don’t think it dirty? I ast.
Naw, she say. God made it. Listen, God love everything you love? and a mess of stuff you don’t. But more than anything else, God love admiration.
You saying God vain? I ast.
Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
What it do when it pissed off? I ast.
Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.
Yeah? I say.
Yeah, she say. It always making little surprises and springing them on us when us least expect.
You mean it want to be loved, just like the bible say.
Yes, Celie, she say. Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?
Well, us talk and talk bout God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?). Not the little wildflowers. Nothing. Now that my eyes opening, I feels like a fool. Next to any little scrub of a bush in my yard, Mr. ____s evil sort of shrink. But not altogether. Still, it is like Shug say, You have to git man off your eyeball, before you can see anything a’tall.
Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere.
Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain’t. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up flowers, wind,water, a big rock.
But this hard work, let me tell you. He been there so long, he don’t want to budge. He threaten lightening, floods and earthquakes. Us fight. I hardly pray at all. Every time I conjure up a rock, I throw it.
Amen”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Pages 194-96
“Everything want to be loved.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 195
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 195
“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 195
“People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 195
“Listen, God love everything you love – and a mess of stuff you don’t. But more than anything else, God love admiration.
You saying God vain? I ast.
Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
What it do when it pissed off? I ast.
Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 195
“Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance and holler, just trying to be loved.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Pages 195-96
“Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to get attention we do, except walk?”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Pages 195-96
“Man corrupt everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere. Soon as you think he everywhere, you think he God. But he ain’t. Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up the flowers, wind, water, a big rock.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 196
“Every time I conjure up a rock, I throw it.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 196
“Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 199
“What will people say, you running off to Memphis like you don’t have a house to look after?
Shug say, Albert. Try to think like you got some sense. Why any woman give a shit what people think is a mystery to me.
Well, say Grady, trying to bring light. A woman can’t git a man if peoples talk.
Shug look at me and us giggle. Then us sure nuff. Then Squeak start to laugh. Then Sofia. All us laugh and laugh.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Pages 199-200
“I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 206
“I love his dear eyes in which the vulnerability and beauty of his soul can be plainly read.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Page 236
“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 251
“The more I wonder, the more I love.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 251
“God is different to us now, after all these years in Africa. More spirit than ever before, and more internal. Most people think he has to look like something or someone- a roofleaf or Christ- but we don’t. And not being tied to what God looks like, frees us.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Nettie, Page 255
“And I don’t believe you dead. How can you be dead if I still feel you? Maybe, like God, you changed into something different that I’ll have to speak to in a different way, but you not dead to me Nettie. And never will you be.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 258
“Sofia the kind of woman no matter what she have in her hand she make it look like a weapon.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 262
“I try to teach my heart not to want nothing it can’t have.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 262
“Some colored people so scared of whitefolks they claim to love the cotton gin.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 263
“I wish I could be traveling with her, but thank God she able to do it. Sometimes I feel mad at her. Feel like I could scratch her hair right off her head. But then I think, Shug got a right to live too. She got a right to look over the world in whatever company she choose. Just cause I love her don’t take away none of her rights.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 266
“Just cause I love her don’t take away none of her rights.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 266
“And I thank God let me gain understanding enough to know love can’t be halted just cause some peoples moan and groan.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 267
“We all have to start somewhere if us want to do better, an d out of self is what us have to hand”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 268
“It didn’t take long to realize I didn’t hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don’t mean nothing if you don’t ast why you here, period”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 280
“If she come, I be happy. If she don’t, I be content.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 281
“I feel a little peculiar around the children. For one thing, they grown. And I see they think me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old and don’t know much what going on. But I don’t think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 286
What is a famous line from The Color Purple?
“I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 206
What is the quote about trees in The Color Purple?
“I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That’s how come I know trees fear man.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 22
What did The Color Purple quote about God?
“God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don’t know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit. It? I ask. Yeah, It. God ain’t a he or a she, but a It. But what do it look like? I ask. Don’t look like nothing, she say. It ain’t a picture show. It ain’t something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you cam feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found it.”
~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Celie, Page 194