“Like hell. You give em as rough a time as your mouth can muster. If you could shut up for half a second and give a man a chance to…”

  “If one kissable man would bite my tongue,” said Patsy Mother real slow, “I’d be silent for days to come.” She said it real clear and serious like somethin important was being put down. Like the old folks clear their throat, hold the rocker silent, and wait till the airplane go over and then lay the wise word on you. “That’s the truth,” she said, pointin the curlin iron straight at me and Patsy like we said different. “Men are wonderful-type persons,” she said. “And if you can find one, just one man in life that knows what the hell he doing, can maybe find his own socks, and don’t be bucklin at the knees or hittin you in the head or chasin around, just one man who halfway know who he dealin with and ain’t too ugly to climb in bed with, don’t look like he been hit in the head with a hammer, often, and enjoyed it…”

-from Basement by Toni Cade Bambara