Alice Walker Quotes

My ancestors make up the skin of the world. That's who that is. That's what that is. That's us.

I don't know if you actually get something out of writing poetry. I think poetry is an autonomous muse that decides to come and sit on your couch.

My writing is very organic. It's what I am. My mother says I was writing before I was crawling. I wrote in the dirt with a twig. So I think of it as something that's very essential to my being.

Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance, and holla just wanting to be loved.

Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.

Our mothers and grandmothers ... moving to music not yet written.

The artist...is the voice of the people.

It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone.

Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

What a burden to think one is conceived in sin rather than in pleasure; that one is born into evil rather than into joy.

You can't send me anywhere that I wouldn't be happy to go. You'd be surprised as to how that lightens the heart.

HELPED are those who are shown the existence of the Creator's magic in the Universe; they shall experience delight and astonishment without ceasing.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

The good news may be that Nature is phasing out the white man, but the bad news is that's who She thinks we all are.

Eventually I knew what hair wanted; it wanted to be itself ... to be left alone by anyone, including me, who did not love it as it was.

Critics don't really affect the fact that we live in this paradise and what the meaning of that [is]. And what luck to have this!

Helped are those who forgive; their reward shall be forgetfulness of every evil done to them. It will be in their power, therefore, to envision the new Earth. -----“The Gospel According to Shug

In order to be able to live at all in America I must be unafraid to live anywhere in it, and I must be able to live in the fashion and with whom I choose.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one's children will become than for the children one's 'mature' critics often are.

How sad now never to see men holding hands, while everywhere one looks they are holding guns.

HELPED are those whose every act is a prayer for peace; on them depends the future of the world.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that's something that we should think about.

Books became my world because the world I was in was very hard.

Humans - whatever billions we are - we don't have the control. We are considered expendable, basically.

But if by some miracle and all our struggle, the earth is spared, only justice to every living being will save humankind.

But I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.

Life is abundant, and life is beautiful. And it's a good place that we're all in, you know, on this earth, if we take care of it.

All History is current; all injustice continues on some level, somewhere in the world.

allowing freedom to others brings freedom to ourselves.

She was so quiet. So reflective. And she could erase herself, her spirit, with a swiftness that truly startled, when she knew the people around her could not respect it.

If I'm killed - if I'm removed - there is nowhere else for me to go but to my ancestors.

I have a lot of faith in us. I have a lot of faith in humanity. It's based, though, on my own life; I've come too far to be a pessimist.

You can't truly have an open heart until it's been broken.

Everything is already perfect. And if you can accept that everything is already perfect, the imperfection is a part of the perfection. What's to worry about?

Not only will your teachers appear, but they will cook new foods for you.

I just really love people a lot. I really love them.

HELPED are those who love the entire cosmos rather than their own tiny country, city, or farm, for to them will be shown the unbroken web of life and the meaning of infinity.

HELPED are those who live in quietness, knowing neither brand name nor fad; they shall live every day as if in eternity, and each moment shall be as full as it is long.

When people become elders - when they're older; they can be old without being an elder, really. They [can] just be old and not very useful.

Laughter isn't even the other side of tears. It is tears turned inside out. Truly the suffering is great, here on earth.

There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

The earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable.

Revolt is the mirror in which greed is forced to see itself.

My parents taught me service - not by saying, but by doing. That was my culture, the culture of my family.

I think colors are miraculous. We live in a universe that is extremely creative and magical. We become happier as we appreciate these things in nature.

I'm mad about the waste that happens when people who love each other can't even bring themselves to talk.

Yoga means to bind back, unite. To bring the body and the soul together. For this reason the practice of yoga is a holy endeavor and the teaching of it to our people a very high calling.

Creation is a sustained period of bliss.

We must, I believe, start teaching our children the sanity of nonviolence much earlier.

I almost never do anything for Black History Month, because I feel it's just another way to separate us.