Monday Morning Quote – Zora Neale Hurston on Milking Bears and the Importance of Friendship

Alas, another weekend gone to the fishes. But at least you’ve got your Monday Morning Quote, right? This week’s quote is by celebrated folklorist and novelist, Zora Neale Hurston, who is most famous for her celebrated, brilliant masterpiece of a novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your morning coffee. It is a whole lot of trouble, and then not worth much after you get it. - Zora Neale Hurston

In spite of her literary prominence during the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston died in relative obscurity, having been buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce, Florida, which was later discovered by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Alice Walker. Ms. Walker’s journey to find Zora Neale Hurston’s grave is chronicled in an essay called “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston,” which was published by Ms. Magazine in March, 1975. A reprint of the original essay can be found in Walker’s nonfiction collection, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. You should check it out—it’s powerful stuff.

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