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“Don't give me no 'but you're beautiful on the inside' bullshit."

"No, you are beautiful on the outside," I say.

"Don't give me that bullshit either. I'm beautiful when I say I'm beautiful. Let me own that shit," she says. Her eyes have not left the computer screen this whole time, but I know she's paying attention to everything I say.

"Okay, then you are ugly."

"Thanks for being honest."

"Seriously. That's what we say in Haiti. 'Nou led, men nou la.' We are ugly, but we are here."

"We are ugly, but we are here," she says, almost whispering. "I hear that.”
― Ibi Zoboi, American Street

“Once I find my way to Grandma's restaurant, after what feels like a zillion wrong turns and dead ends, I walk in and smell all the bomb soul food- her famous fried chicken with all the creole seasonings, thyme, rosemary, and tarragon. I even get a whiff of her famous sweet potato pie, and I'm practically drooling.”
― Jay Coles, Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love

“So I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why I was ever born at all.”
― Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

“Pushed times make a monkey chew pepper.~ Creole proverb. (challenging times inspire unique actions)”
― Myra Jolivet

“far noh mattah wat dey say,
come wat may,
we are here to stay
inna Inglan,
inna disya time yah...”
― Linton Kwesi Johnson, Inglan is a Bitch

“And how many boyfriends have you had, Alice?â€�
“Mama,� Paul growled under his breath. “Let the girl eat.�
“Can you pass the biscuits?� Andy said. “These are great. So tasty. Fluffy. Just the right amount of…� He frowned at the one in his hand, “…dough.�
“It’s okay,â€� Alice said. She loved those two for trying to run interference, but she knew Creole mamas. They found out the truth, whether you wanted them to or not.”
― Mary Jane Hathaway, The Pepper in the Gumbo

“Marie the Second sported a bright tignon to signal her status and identity. She flaunted her turban, gold jewelry, and a proud walk that announced to all that saw her -- I am not white, not slave, not black, not French, not Negro, not African American. I am a free woman, a Creole of New Orleans.”
― Martha Ward, Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau

“Le rythme lent et appliqué me faisait venir au cÅ“ur une lointaine berceuse créole.”
― Daniel Picouly, Le Cri muet de l'iguane

“Vivian Weaver took us from pot to pot in her kitchen, lifting lids, stirring and tasting as she went along. There was seafood gumbo, fried fish and fried chicken, dumplings, butter biscuits, cornbread, fried okra, black-eyed peas, green beans, and bread pudding.”
― Margot Berwin, Scent of Darkness

“Kenbe fèm.”
― "Stay Strong" In Haitian Creole

“You have no clue what is out there."

- Finkle”
― Stacey L. Pierson, Dark Descendants

“People always ask me what is my favourite thing about Trinidad. It is a hard question because ! love the beaches and the music of Trinidad, but...
I think the food is the best of all!”
― Bilqees Mohammed, Juanita : A bilingual children's book set in Trinidad and Tobago

“There is a marked difference between brilliance and intellectuality.
Some of us use both words interchangeably to describe people who can use big words.
A number of people are grandiloquent but not wise.
A person can be verbose but not esoteric.
Just as literacy does not equate to intelligence.


There are two types of learnt people in the world.
Some persons are scholars and others are alchemist.

Let me further my thesis on intellectuals.
Now you have a scholar and an alchemist.
The scholar passes exams, memorizes words and phrases, the alchemist has the intellectual prowess to start a whole new fundamental truth, discipline and school of thought because they can create concepts from their own minds without no external inputs.
Alchemist pass exams without studying because they just know how things work or they use context clue.
For that reason not every smart person is a genius.

Alchemist use their brains to change or improve the world with ingenuity and originality.

The alchemist has a way with words, when they speak you stop and listen. The alchemist is witty in any language (Creole or patois).
Let’s renounce the colonial concept that using Anglo-Saxon words is a mark of intelligence.

Eg.
Kartel speaks English- Kartel intelligent yuh fawk.”
― Crystal Evans, Jamaican Acute Ghetto Itis