Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett is an American novelist. She is known for her 2009 debut novel, The Help, which is about African-American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1960s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
CountryUnited States of America
helping lifetime
They say it's like true love, good help. You only get one in a lifetime.
book thoughtful years
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.
blue space hair
Lord, I never seen blue hair on a black woman before or since. Leroy say you look like a cracker from outer space.
breastfeeding bedroom bosoms
Bosoms are for bedrooms and breastfeeding.
dream fun lying
And if your friends make fun of you for chasing your dream, remember—just lie.
goes matter
I think if you're president, color goes away completely: you're president and it doesn't matter if you're white, green or purple.
child divorced gift gone grew incredible life mirror older stood thinks wardrobe
When I grew older and awkward, when my parents divorced and life had gone all to hell, Demetrie stood me at the wardrobe mirror and told me over and over, 'You are beautiful. You are smart. You are important.' It was an incredible gift to give a child who thinks nothing of herself.
grocery laws movies places state though white
That white uniform was her 'pass' to get into white places with us - the grocery store, the state fair, the movies. Even though this was the 70s and the segregation laws had changed, the 'rules' had not.
came cleaning domestic looking stayed wait white
Demetrie came to wait on my grandmother in 1955 and stayed for 32 years. It was common, in Mississippi, to have a black domestic cleaning the kitchen, cooking the meals, looking after the white children.
discussed forced glad good guess issue people perspective southerner touching white
I'm a Southerner - I never take satisfaction in touching a nerve. I guess if I'm forced to find a good side, I'm glad that people are talking about an issue that hasn't really been discussed all that much. I'm glad that people are talking about it from the black perspective and the white perspective.
attitude showing
As I wrote, I found that Aibileen had some things to say that really weren't in her character. She was older, soft-spoken, and she started showing some attitude.
ask incredibly push stubborn
I'm really incredibly stubborn - you can ask my ex-husband. I think when you tell me 'no', if it's something I really want, I'm just going to push harder.
anybody truth
On the one hand I wonder, Was this really my story to tell? On the other hand, I just wanted the story to be told. But the truth is that I didn't think anybody was going to read it.
bathe bathroom children embrace feed love raise silly women
What a dichotomy. What conflicting ideas that we love and embrace these women, and entrust them to raise our children and to feed us and to bathe us, but we keep something as silly as a bathroom separate.