Their Eyes Were Watching God

[after the Eatonville townsfolk ask Janie to say a few words at the founding ceremony]

Joe Starks:
Thank you for your compliments, but Mrs. Starks don't know nothin' bout no speech-makin'. I didn't marry her for nothin' like that.

[after Joe calls her old and insults her]

Janie Starks:
You talk a lot of brass, Joe, but there here's nothin' big about you but your voice! Hell, when you pull down yo' britches it look like you done hit the change of life!

Janie Starks:
[to Joe on his deathbed] Even now, you got to die with me being obedient, instead of just letting me love you.

Joe Starks:
I hope thunder and lightning kill you.

Tea Cake:
My momma named me Virgil Woods, but everybody call me Tea Cake.

Janie Starks:
Tea Cake, huh? You as sweet as all that?

Tea Cake:
Why don't you try me and see?

[when Janie stares up at the sky]

Tea Cake:
Whatcha doin', Janie?

Janie Starks:
I'm watchin' God.

Pearl Stone:
[after having gossiped about Janie with her friends only moments before] Lord, Janie? We been worried sick about you!

Janie Starks:
[under her breath] Go to hell.

Pearl Stone:
What's that you said?

Janie Starks:
I said, "Good afternoon, ladies."

[first lines]

Janie Starks:
There's two things everybody got to find out for theyselves: they got to find out about love, and they got to find out about living. Now, love is like the sea. It's a moving thing. And it's different on every shore. And living... well, I just come back from burying the dead.

Phoebe Watson:
If that Tea Cake ever shows his behind in Eatonville again, he'll wish he hadn't. He knew you had just lost Joe, so he took advantage of you and your money.

Janie Starks:
He ain't wasted none of my money. And if he were here, he'd tell everybody so, too.

Phoebe Watson:
But he gone, ain't he?

Janie Starks:
[silent; gives just the smallest nod]

Phoebe Watson:
He dragged you down to his level, and then...

Janie Starks:
Y'all think he did me wrong.

Phoebe Watson:
Janie, we all know he did you wrong!

Janie Starks:
Well, I ain't stunned by what they think.

Joe Starks:
Doctor say I'm dyin.' Guess you come to watch. [turns and groans]

Janie Starks:
[sits down next to Joe] Jody, maybe I ain't been such a good wife to you. But you gave me everything a woman could ever dream of having, and I thank you. But Jody, you and me been together now for 20 years, and you don't know me half at all.

Joe Starks:
I know you.

Janie Starks:
[shakes head] You changed from that Jody I run off down the road with. I wanted to keep a house with you in a wonderful way, but you wasn't really satisfied with me the way I was.

Joe Starks:
I built a whole town for us. But that ain't good enough for you.

Janie Starks:
It's just that my own feelings had to be squeezed and crowded out of me to make room for yours in me.

Joe Starks:
Blame everything on me. I don't let you show me no feeling, huh? Janie, that's all I ever wanted!

Janie Starks:
Ain't nobody trying to blame nothing on you, Joe! But all this bowing down and obedience... well, it just... it ain't what I run off with you down that road for!

[first meeting, while Janie is married to Logan Killicks]

Joe Starks:
Your parents are gonna give you hell for settin' their pigs free.

Janie Starks:
They dead. And I don't care what my husband thinks neither.

Joe Starks:
Husband?

Janie Starks:
Gone to get a plow, so I can help 'im in the fields.

Joe Starks:
Girl, you got no more business behind a plow than a hog does with a holiday.

Tea Cake:
Oh, Janie, you're the kind o' woman that'll make a man forget to grow old.