Home / Authors / George Lamming

George Lamming Quotes

Author

Browse famous quotes by George Lamming.

Filter quotes by topic

All Class Struggle Soul Acceptance Adolescence Belonging Blackness Boyhood British Culture Britishness Cage

Famous George Lamming Quotes

“When the poor man loose control of the best in himself... it ain't his fault at all, it is the fault of people who go 'round making poppits of other poor people.”

Justice Poverty Injustice Oppression Police State Social Justice Reform

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin

“He had been seen by another. He had become a part of the other's world, and therefore no longer in complete control of his own. The eye was another kind of cage. When it saw you the lid came down, and you were trapped.”

Soul Control Eyes Trap

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin

“Whatever was said or done, I knew what I wanted; and that was to be a boy among the boys.”

Growing Up Acceptance Belonging Adolescence Teen Boyhood

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin

“If you ask him for a shilling, or two or three shillings, he'll give freely freely, but if he know that he got to spend a few hundred dollars, which is no more than three shillings compare to what he got, boys, he will cry buckets of tears.”

Money Capitalism Materialism Class Struggle The Ruling Class The Working Class

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin

“If you tell have of them that work in those places that they have somethin' to do with Africa they'd piss straight in your face." But why you goin' to tell a man that for," said Mr. Foster, "Why tell a man he's somebody brother when he ain't?" "'Tis true," said Bob's father, "no man like to know he black." (p.102)”

Blackness Race Issues Racial Construct

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin

“Tis only right he say that every man should own his own piece o' land at some time or other. 'Tis the ambition of every man to do that same said thing, an' he say it ain't only poor, simple people like you an' me, but 'tis the way the big folks think too.”

Ownership Class Struggle Home Ownership

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin

“The newspaper was always behind the news, not in front. You shouldn't ever go to the papers for information. They usually printed what they thought people wanted to see, and they had no explanation to give. It wasn't the king they saw. That wasn't the king at all. It was the king's shadow. [...] The shadow king was a part of the English tradition. The English, the boy said, were fond of shadows. [...] Somebody asked if you were ever talking to a real man or a shadow when you talked to an Englishman [...] Some of them were the man and the shadow at the same time, but more shadow than man. [...] It was always difficult to distinguish between the man and the shadow, and sometimes it was all shadow. (p.49)”

Shadow Colonialism Shadows British Culture Britishness

Author:George Lamming

“Times goin' change again an' things too, and that great British Empire goin' change too, 'cause time ain't got nothin' to do with these empires. God don't like ugly, an' whenever these big great empires starts to get ugly with the thing they does the Almighty puts His hands down once an' for all. He tell them without talkin', fellows, you had your day. (p.101)”

Kingdoms Empires Providence Nothing Lasts Forever

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin

“The darkness brought a strange kind of release, and you wished secretly in your heart that darkness would descend on the whole earth so that you could get a chance to see how much energy there was stored in your little self. You could get a chance to leave the cage. You would be free.”

Soul Dark Freedom Darkness Cage

Book:In the Castle of My Skin

Source: In the Castle of My Skin