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Authors:

Ralph Ellison quotes

American Author March 1, 1914 – April 16, 1994

Cite this Page: Citation

Quotes

So why do I write, torturing myself to put it down? Because in spite of myself I've learned some things. Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled "file and forget," and I can neither file nor forget. Nor will certain ideas forget me; they keep filing away at my lethargy, my complacency. Why should I be the one to dream this nightmare? Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the..."
The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike. Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is..."
Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by. Ralph Ellison
The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically. Ralph Ellison
Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own good—only /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop? Ralph Ellison
I felt that even when they were polite they hardly saw me, that they would have begged the pardon of Jack the Bear, never glancing his way if the bear happened to be walking along minding his business. It was confusing. I did not know if it was desirable or undesirable... Ralph Ellison
Can it be, I thought, can it actually be? .......could he be all of them: Rine the runner and Rine the gambler and Rine the briber and Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend? Could he himself be both rind and heart? .....Rinehart the rounder. It was true as I was true. His world was possibility and he knew it. He was years ahead of me and I was a fool. I must have been crazy and blind. The world in which we lived was without boundaries...All boundaries down, freedom was not only the... Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring..."
Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove. Ralph Ellison
I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed. Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "In those days it was either live with music or die with noise,..."
In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live. Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch..."
The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch up with the time. In the street a siren howled. Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "Education is all a matter of building bridges."
Education is all a matter of building bridges. Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "The understanding of art depends finally upon one's..."
The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity. Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison quote: "Words are your business, boy. Not just the word. Words are..."
Words are your business, boy. Not just the word. Words are everything. The key to the rock, the answer to the question. Ralph Ellison
Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it. Ralph Ellison

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