“I'm sure we, the American people, are the butt of jokes by those in power.”
Power
“In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.”
WomenAll Quotes by Alice Walker
“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.”
Nature“Clearly older women and especially older women who have led an active life or elder women who successfully maneuver through their own family life have so much to teach us about sharing, patience, and wisdom.”
Family“The infinite faith I have in people's ability to understand anything that makes sense has always been justified, finally, by their behavior.”
Faith“As you know from school, it's when you have not prepared for the test that you have the fear of failing. And if you have prepared, even if you fail, you've done your best.”
Best“I can be almost terminally grief-stricken because things are so dire, but at the same time, there's a real lightheartedness about just the recoverability of life, of how things change, how they're not the same, ever again.”
Change“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“Fiction is such a world of freedom, it's wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.”
Freedom“We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that's going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.”
Change“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“How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.”
Mom“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“All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.”
Experience“I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me, 'black feminist' does not do that. I need a word that is organic, that really comes out of the culture, that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women. And it's just... womanish.”
Women“The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one's people that has not previously been taken into account.”
Society“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.”
God“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“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.”
Death“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.'”
Education“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