Quotessence
Home / Authors / Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllFeminismIfsSilenceBlackLiteratureDifferencesOppressionFearSpeakWay

Famous Audre Lorde Quotes

“As a Black lesbian feminist comfortable with the many different ingredients of my identity, and a woman committed to racial and sexual freedom from oppression, I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self. But this is a destructive and fragmenting way to live.”

WayDifferentSelfWholeBlackIdentityAcceptanceComfortableAspectCommittedFeministSexualityMeaningfulOppressionDestructiveIngredientsWay To LivePluck
Author:Audre Lorde
Create image

“African tradition deals with life as an experience to be lived. In many respects, it is much like the Eastern philosophies in that we see ourselves as a part of a life force; we are joined, for instance, to the air, to the earth. We are part of the whole-life process. We live in accordance with, in a kind of correspondence with the rest of the world as a whole. And therefore living becomes an experience, rather than a problem, no matter how bad or how painful it may be.”

WorldKindMayMatterPhilosophyWholeProblemEarthForceProcessDealsAirTraditionPainfulWhole LifeInstanceOnenessEasternCorrespondenceEastern Philosophy
Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde
Create image

“Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayNeedsHumansThreeDifferencesEconomyMembersAbsolutesProfitHandleRejectionCopiesOutsidersDominantSubordinatesLoathingSurplusFear And LoathingThree Ways
Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Create image

“Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is the one which is the most secret, which requires the least physical labor, the least material, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper. ... poetry has been the major voice of poor, working class, and Colored women. A room of one's own may be a necessity for writing prose, but so are reams of paper, a typewriter, and plenty of time.”

WritingMayHas BeensArtDoneFormVoicePoorRoomsSecretClassPovertyMaterialsPaperMajorsLaborPlentyProsePoetry IsHospitalsWorking ClassSubwayScrapTypewritersSurplusPantry
Author:Audre Lorde
Create image

“You loved people and you came to depend on their being there. but people died or changed or went away and it hurt too much. The only way to avoid that poin was not to love anyone, and not to let anyone get too close or too important. The secret of not being hurt like this again, I decided, was never depending on anyone, never needing, never loving.It is the last dream of children, to be forever untouched.”

PeopleWayChildrenImportantDreamLastsHurtSecretForeverToo MuchChangedDependsDecidedDiedIt HurtsBeing ThereBeing Hurt
Author:Audre Lorde
Create image

“From my membership in all of these groups I have learned that oppression and the intolerance of difference come in all shapes and sizes and colors and sexualities; and that among those of us who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children, there can be no hierarchies of oppression.”

ChildrenGoalDifferencesGroupsShareColorShapesOur ChildrenSizeSexualityOppressionLiberationIntoleranceI Have LearnedHierarchyMembership
Author:Audre Lorde
Create image