Vintage Books & Anchor Books

“ I was telling stories before I could write. I like to tell stories, and I like to talk to things. If you]ve read fairy tales, you know that everything can talk,from trees to chairs to tables to brooms. So I grew up thinking that, and I turned it into stories. ”
— J. California Cooper

“Physical shapes have always been in style, ain’t no getting around it! Forever. Boys liked me but they wanted something better. Something to make other boys jealous, which I guess I couldn’t do. So when it came to love, it wasn’t so much prejudice as it was preference. See? They could not see the Femme Fatale that was in me.”

-from  Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime, J. California Cooper

“Love entered in my heart one day
A sad, unwelcome guest.
But when it begged that it might stay
I let it stay and rest

It broke my nights with sorrowing
It filled my heart with fears
And, when my soul was prone to sing,
It filled my eyes with tears.

But…now that it has gone its way,
I miss the dear ole pain.
And, sometimes, in the night I pray
That Love might come again.”
― J. California Cooper