Quotes By Alice Walker

I have never felt that the one thing that I am 'known for' is what I am.

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.

We must, I believe, start teaching our children the sanity of nonviolence much earlier.

Sucking up to the biggies won't get us anywhere.

For a long time, I thought I was ugly and disfigured. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults that were not intended.

In search of my mother's garden, I found my own.

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.

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.

I love the natural world - it comes from my culture, which grew out of a people enslaved.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one's people that has not previously been taken into account.

'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.

Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister.

I think that wealthy white people would like to have a country that resembles the Fifties, when all the minorities were tucked away in ghettos and paid in very low wages but on the surface it was very bright and shiny and free and the rest of the world would look on it longingly.

I'm sure we, the American people, are the butt of jokes by those in power.

America is not nearly done. We're only in the beginning. Who knows who we will be? Who knows... what color we will be? It is all something that, maybe, our descendants - if they survive that long - will see.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.

The experience of God, or in any case the possibility of experiencing God, is innate.

The quietly pacifist peaceful always die to make room for men who shout.

Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.

I realized I was a country person - I'm just not used to small spaces.

I can imagine in years to come that my papers and memorabilia, my journals and letters, will find themselves always in the company of people who care about many of the things I do.

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.

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.

I'm entirely interested in people, and also other creatures and beings, but especially in people, and I tend to read them by emotional field more than anything. So I have a special interest in what they're thinking and who they are and who's hiding behind those eyes and how did he get there, and what's the story, really?

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.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don't.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it's wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.