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Audre Lorde Quotes


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Audre Lorde
February 18, 1934 - 1992
Nationality: American
Category: Poet
Subcategory: American Poet

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

   

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

   

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.

   

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

   

When I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid.

   

It's a struggle but that's why we exist, so that another generation of Lesbians of color will not have to invent themselves, or their history, all over again.

   

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

   

Attend me, hold me in your muscular flowering arms, protect me from throwing any part of myself away.

   

Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.

   

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

   

Part of the lesbian consciousness is an absolute recognition of the erotic within our lives and, taking that a step further, dealing with the erotic not only in sexual terms.

   

But the question is a matter of the survival and the teaching. That's what our work comes down to. No matter where we key into it, it's the same work, just different pieces of ourselves doing it.

   

Our visions begin with our desires.

   

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.

   

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

   

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.

   

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

   

The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.

   

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.

   

I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't.

   

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