Home / Quotes / Quote by Kiese Laymon

Quote by Kiese Laymon

“After reading Bambara, I wondered for the first time how great an American sentence, paragraph, or book could be if it wasn't, at least partially, written to and for black Americans in the Deep South.”

Book:Heavy

Work

Heavy

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Kiese Laymon

Kiese Laymon is an American writer known for his profound personal narratives and critical explorations of race, gender, and identity. His work often focuses on the experiences of black Americans, particularly the black community in Louisiana. more

“That is a fair lord and a great captain of men," said Legolas. "If Gondor has such men still in these days of fading, great must have been its glory in the days of its rising." "And doubtless the good stone-work is the older and was wrought in the first building," said Gimli. "It is ever so with the things that Men begin: there is a frost in Spring, or a blight in Summer, and they fail of their promise." "Yet seldom do they fail of their seed," said Legolas. "And that will lie in the dust and rot to spring up again in times and places unlooked-for. The deed of Men will outlast us, Gimli." "And yet come to naught in the end but might-have-beens, I guess," said the Dwarf. "To that the Elves know not the answer," said Legolas.”

Hope Loss Greatness Promise Future Glory

Book:The Return of the King

Source: The Return of the King

“Ah ain't got tuh do but two things--stay black and die," Sister Berry snapped.”

Death Obligation Blackness

Author:Zora Neale Hurston

“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

“The condition of being alienated and "othered" reflects the ways in which navigating Western societies as a Black person is an endlessly unsettling experience, something that might be ripped whole from the pages of a speculative novel. Because of this, the search for lost cultural touchstones is a gesture towards survival: it is an Afrofuturistic act. At its heart it is the creation of a possible future based on a reconstructed, or reimagined past. In this way, a ware is wages against erasure.”