Alice Walker is a poet, novelist, short story writer and social activist from the United States, who rose to prominence in the 20th century and remains one of the foremost intellectuals of the world. She was born in a poor family but her mother made sure that she was educated and Walker had secretly started writing stories from as early an age as eight. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, Walker plunged straight into the world of activism by joining voter registration campaigns and other welfare programs. She had been interested in the Civil Rights Movement and the movement had a profound influence on her as an activist. Walker’s writing career is best known for the book ‘The Color Purple’ published in 1982 that made her one of the better known writers in the world. It won her the National Book Award and more importantly, she was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her other notable works as a writer include ‘The Third Life of Grange Copeland’ and ‘Meridian’, both of which further enhanced her reputation as a writer of rare skill. Walker is a woman who is a great orator and here are some of the more famous quotes from her life as a writer, activist and public intellectual.
Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof.
Alice Walker
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.
Alice Walker
Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.
Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly.
Alice Walker
Never offer your heart
to someone who eats hearts
who finds heartmeat
delicious
but not rare
who sucks the juices
drop by drop
and bloody-chinned
grins
like a God.
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.
Alice Walker
People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.
Alice Walker
When the ax came into the forest the trees said the handle is one of us.
Alice Walker
Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to get attention we do, except walk?
(a womanist)
3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.
I don't know. I imagine good teaching as a circle of earnest people sitting down to ask each other meaningful questions. I don't see it as a handing down of answers...
Some people don't understand that it is the nature of the eye to have seen forever, and the nature of the mind to recall anything that was ever known.
Alice Walker
I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found It.
We do not believe in heaven or hell...; we do not believe in eternal damnation. We believe only in the unavoidable horror of hurting others and of likewise being hurt.
Alice Walker
Resist the temptation to think what afflicts you is peculiar to you. Have faith that what is in your consciousness can be communicated to the consciousness of all. And is, in many cases, already there.
It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period
What did it mean for a black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers' time? In our great-grandmothers' day? It is an answer cruel enough to stop the blood.
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
Aside from the fact that they say it's unhealthy, my fat ain't never been no trouble. Mens always have loved me. My kids ain't never complained. Plus they's fat.
The world has changed: it did not change without your prayers without your faith without your determination to believe in liberation and kindness; without your dancing through the years that had no beat.
Alice Walker
Not only will your teachers appear, but they will cook new foods for you.
You seem so clear about who you are. So certain that you are just right as you are, that for all your intelligence and maybe in spite of it, you never seem to need a second opinion.
The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom
Rebellious. Living.
Against the Elemental Crush.
A Song of Color
Blooming
For Deserving Eyes.
Blooming Gloriously
For its Self.
Alice Walker
I think we have to own the fears that we
have of each other, and then, in some
practical way, some daily way, figure
out how to see people differently
than the way we were brought up to.
3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless. )
