77 quotes
If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up.
Beloved (1987)
It is sprinkling now. A teasing August rain that raises expectations it cannot fill.
Beloved (1987)
You need intelligence, and you need to look. You need a gaze, a wide gaze, penetrating and roving — thats what's useful for art.
Interview with Don Swaim (1987)
Beginning Beloved with numerals rather than spelled out numbers, it was my intention to give the house an identity separate from the street or even the city...
For me, Art is the restoration of order. It may discuss all sort of terrible things, but there must be satisfaction at the end. A little bit of hunger, but also satisfaction.
Interview with Don Swaim (1987)
They are the petulant ones who call themselves proud, and they are the disdainful ones who call themselves fastidious, and they are the mean-spirited ones who call themselves just.
A Humanist View (1975)
More it hurt more better it is. Can't nothing heal without pain, you know.
Beloved (1987)
The screams of a hurt woman were indistinguishable from everyday traffic.
Paradise (1997)
Which was what love was: unmotivated respect.
Paradise (1997)
Unless carefree, motherlove was a killer.
Beloved (1987)
In that place, where they tore the nightshade and blackberry patches from their roots to make room for the Medallion City Golf Course, there was once a neighborhood.
Sula (1973)
Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?.
Beloved (1987)
Human life is holy, all of it.
Beloved (1987)
With that, she gathered her blanket around her elbows and ascended the lily-white stairs like a bride. Outside, snow solidified itself into graceful forms. The peace of winter staars seemed permanent.
Beloved (1987)
Garner called and announced them men — but only on Sweet Home, and by his leave. Was he naming what he saw or creating what he did not?
Beloved (1987)
Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me.
Beloved (1987)
"Tell me something, Stamp." Paul D's eyes were rheumy. "Tell me this one thing. How much is a nigger supposed to take? Tell me. How much?"
Beloved (1987)
Bit by bit, at 124 and in the Clearing, along with others, she had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
Beloved (1987)
Word-work is sublime... because it is generative... We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don't need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens — that letting go — you let go because you can.
Tar Baby (1981)