“My mother was very strong. Once, she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father's head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.”
Women
“I'm not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself - then they get to say 'See, you did it yourself.'”
EducationAll Quotes by Alice Walker
“Fiction is such a world of freedom, it's wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.”
Freedom“How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.”
Mom“Never be the only one, except, possibly, in your own home.”
Home“In search of my mother's garden, I found my own.”
Gardening“As an elder of the Americas and of the rest of the planet, it is my responsibility to care for and protect, to the best of my ability, the young.”
Best“All History is current all injustice continues on some level, somewhere in the world.”
History“I'm for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.”
Women“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
Friendship“I don't call myself a Buddhist. I'm a free spirit. I believe I'm here on earth to admire and enjoy it that's my religion.”
Religion“Well, I think indigenous peoples have ways of living on the Earth that they've had forever. And they've been overrun by organized religion, which has had a lot of money and power.”
Money“The infinite faith I have in people's ability to understand anything that makes sense has always been justified, finally, by their behavior.”
Faith“For in the end, freedom is a personal and lonely battle and one faces down fears of today so that those of tomorrow might be engaged.”
Freedom“I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.”
Money“The trouble with our people is as soon as they got out of slavery they didn't want to give the white man nothing else. But the fact is, you got to give em something. Either your money, your land, your woman or your ass.”
Money“Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.”
Mom“It's so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that's what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.”
Women“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.”
Power“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”
Men“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.”
Art