There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

Hurston’s line contrasts periods of uncertainty with periods of clarity. “Years that ask questions” suggests stretches of life marked by searching—testing beliefs, enduring upheaval, or living with unresolved dilemmas. “Years that answer” points to later moments when experience, hindsight, or changed circumstances supply meaning and direction. The aphorism captures a cyclical view of time: life is not a steady accumulation of certainty but an alternation between inquiry and resolution. Read alongside Hurston’s broader interest in folk wisdom and lived experience, the quote implies that answers are often earned indirectly—through time, endurance, and the gradual unfolding of consequences rather than through immediate reasoning.