America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description.
RALPH ELLISONLight confirms my reality, gives birth to my form…without light I am not only invisible but formless as well; and to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death…the truth is the light and light is the truth.
More Ralph Ellison Quotes
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The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.
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Man’s hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove.
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If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to bind, imprison and destroy.
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Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form…without light I am not only invisible but formless as well; and to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death…the truth is the light and light is the truth.
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The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead.
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Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by.
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You start Saul, and end up Paul,’ my grandfather had often said. ‘When you’re a youngun, you Saul, but let life whup your head a bit and you starts to trying to be Paul – though you still Sauls around on the side.
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Perhaps everyone loved someone; I didn’t now, I couldn’t give much thought to love; in order to travel far you had to be detached, and I had the long road back to the campus before me.
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To hell with being ashamed of what you liked.
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Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
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It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.
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Meaning grows in the mind, but the shape and form of the act remains.
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We don’t all dig Shakespeare uniformly, or even ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ The understanding of art depends finally upon one’s willingness to extend one’s humanity and one’s knowledge of human life.
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Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.
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I remember that I’m invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.
RALPH ELLISON