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Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde Quotes

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Audre Lorde, an American writer, poet, and speaker, was born on February 18, 1934, and passed away on November 17, 1992. Known for her profound insights into race, gender, and sexual orientation, her work encompasses poetry, prose, and novels, which have had a profound impact on contemporary literature and social movements.

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Famous Audre Lorde Quotes

“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. Over the last few years, writing a novel on tight finances, I came to appreciate the enormous differences in the material demands between poetry and prose. As we reclaim our literature, 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.”

Art Poetry Literature Race Class Gender Prose

Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“I am very, very happy for Alice Walker.”

Literature Very Happy Walkers

Author:Audre Lorde

“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.”

People Ifs Would Be Literature Inspiring Fantasy Alive Personality Diversity Social Justice Being Yourself Black Women Black History Black Women Inspirational Female Writers Black Motivational Defining Myself

Author:Audre Lorde

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

Inspirational Literature Differences Inspiring Accepting Equality Celebrate African American Divides Celebration Inability Dividing Celebrate Life Black Women Inspirational Racism And Prejudice

Author:Audre Lorde

“Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever.”

Ifs Literature Inspiring Forever Valentine's Day I Love You Romantic Valentines Day Happy Valentines Day

Book:The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde

Source: The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde

“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.”

Reason Literature Growth Differences Progress Destruction Celebration

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.”

Action Literature House Peace Power Masters Words Of Wisdom Tools Inequality African American

Author:Audre Lorde

“But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.”

Motivational Literature Sleep Deals Consciousness Feminist Lesbianism

Author:Audre Lorde

“Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each other for it rather than to recognize and move upon our common interests.”

Moving Literature Black Interest Common Attention Racism Competition Males Black Women Common Interests

Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.”

Has Beens Literature Black Study Habit Native Tenderness Black Women Stolen

Author:Audre Lorde

“Black women sharing close ties with each other, politically or emotionally, are not the enemies of Black men.”

Men Literature Black Enemy Ties Black Women

Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“I can't really define it in sexual terms alone although our sexuality is so energizing why not enjoy it too?”

I Can Literature Enjoy Term Sexuality Why Not Energizing

Author:Audre Lorde

“In other words, I would be giving in to a myth of sameness which I think can destroy us.”

Thinking Giving Would Be Literature Myth Giving In Sameness

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to write about, or who black writers are supposed to be, are condemned to silences in black literary circles that are as total and as destructive as any imposed by racism.”

Writing Literature Black Silence Quality Steps Racism Circles Supposed To Be Destructive Racist Pale

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“The sixties were characterized by a heady belief in instantaneous solutions.”

Literature Belief Solutions Sixty Instantaneous

Author:Audre Lorde

“I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.”

Feelings Light Remember Young Literature Felt Black Hell Keys Fine Gay Racism Lonely Being Lonely

Author:Audre Lorde

“The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.”

World Firsts Literature Differences Lessons Feminist Conquer Empowering Our World Divides Crucial Academic Divide And Conquer

Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives.”

Light Literature Quality Our Lives Products Direct Scrutinize

Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“I would like to do another piece of fiction dealing with a number of issues: Lesbian parenting, the 1960's, and interracial relationships in the Lesbian and Gay community.”

Literature Community Numbers Fiction Issues Pieces Gay 1960s Gay Pride Gay Community

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“It's possible to take that as a personal metaphor and then multiply it to a people, a race, a sex, a time. If we can keep this thing going long enough, if we can survive and teach what we know, we'll make it.”

People Ifs Knows Long Enough Literature Sex Race Teach Metaphor

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“There are lesbians, God knows... if you came up through lesbian circles in the forties and fifties in New York... who were not feminist and would not call themselves feminists.”

Ifs Knows Literature New York Feminist Circles Forty God Knows

Author:Audre Lorde

“When we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop those structures that will present and circulate our culture.”

Culture Literature Color Structure Feminist

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now.”

Life Done Reality Life Is Literature Inspirational Life

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.”

Want Needs Mother Literature Black Teacher Pieces Keys Asking Etc Black Women One Piece Dykes

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

“We're supposed to see "universal" love as heterosexual. What I insist upon in my work is that there is no such thing as universal love in literature.”

Literature Universal Kinky Universal Love

Book:Conversations with Audre Lorde

Source: Conversations with Audre Lorde

About the Author

Born: February 18, 1934
Died: November 17, 1992
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 343

Related Topics

Feminism Ifs Silence Black Literature Differences Oppression Fear Speak Way Women Knows Black Women Erotic Feelings Racism Survival Action Our Lives People

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Sister Outsider: Essays and SpeechesRelated source material

Conversations with Audre LordeRelated source material

The Cancer JournalsRelated source material

The Collected Poems of Audre LordeRelated source material

A Burst of Light: and Other EssaysRelated source material

The Black Unicorn: PoemsRelated source material

Zami: A New Spelling of My NameRelated source material

Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As PowerRelated source material

The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's HouseRelated source material

Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and PoemsRelated source material

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