01UndatedNo woman is responsible for altering the psyche of her oppressor, even when that psyche is embodied in another woman.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
02UndatedOppressed peoples are always being asked to stretch a little more, to bridge the gap between blindness and humanity.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
03UndatedThis kind of action is a prevalent error among oppressed peoples. It is based upon the false notion that there is only a limited and particular amount of freedom that must be divided up between us, with the largest and juiciest pieces of liberty going as spoils to the victor or the stronger. So instead of joining together to fight for more, we quarrel between ourselves for a larger slice of the one pie. Black women fight between ourselves over men, instead of pursuing and using who we are and our strengths for lasting change; Black women and men fight between ourselves over who has more of a right to freedom, instead of seeing each other's struggles as part of our own and vital to our common goals; Black and white women fight between ourselves over who is the more oppressed, instead of seeing those areas in which our causes are the same. (Of course, this last separation is worsened by the intransigent racism that white women too often fail to, or cannot, address in themselves.)Audre Lorde / quote ↗
04UndatedLove is a word, another kind of open.As the diamond comesinto a knot of flameI am Blackbecause I come from the earth's insidetake my word for jewelin the open light.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
05UndatedI became more courageous by doing the very things I needed to be courageous for-first a little and badly. Then bit by bit more and better. Being avidly-sometimes annoy-ingly-curious and persistent about discovering how others were doing what I wanted to do.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
06UndatedHatred is a death wish for the hated not a life wish for anything else.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
07UndatedI realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act write speak be I'll be sending messages on a ouija board cryptic complaints from the other side.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
08UndatedWhile we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness the weight of that silence will choke us.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
10UndatedHe pondered that a little while and then he asked, do Black people have to pay for their doctors, too? Because that's what TV programs had said. I smiled a little at this and told him it's not only Black people who have to pay for doctors and medical care; all people in America have to. Ah, he said. And suppose you don't have the money to pay? Well, I said, if you don't have the money to pay, sometimes you died. And there was no mistaking my gesture, even though he had to wait for the translator to translate it. We left him looking absolutely nonplussed, standing in the middle of the square with his mouth open and his hand under his chin staring after me, as in utter amazement that human beings could die from lack of medical care. It's things like that that keep me dreaming about Russia long after I've returned.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
11UndatedThe 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.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
12UndatedI would like to do another piece of fiction dealing with a number of issues: Lesbian parenting, the 1960's, and interracial relationships in the Lesbian and Gay community.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
14UndatedIn our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
15UndatedThere's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
16UndatedIf I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
17UndatedWhen I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
18UndatedPoetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
20UndatedOnly by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
21UndatedWe have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
22UndatedWhen we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop those structures that will present and circulate our culture.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
23UndatedBlack women sharing close ties with each other, politically or emotionally, are not the enemies of Black men.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
24UndatedIt'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.Audre Lorde / quote ↗
