Lorde Quotes

I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for Humanities conference a year ago. . . .

For those of us who write, it is necessary to scrutinize not only the truth of what we speak, but the truth of that language by which we speak it.

I have suckled the wolf's lip of anger and I have used it for illumination, laughter, protection, fire in places where there was no light, no food, no sisters, no quarter.

Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare.

Every woman I have ever known has made a lasting impression on my soul.

If our history has taught us anything, it is that action for change directed against the external conditions of our oppressions is not enough.

My fear of anger taught me nothing.

If you can't change reality, change your perceptions of it.

Afraid is a country with no exit visas.

I cannot shut you out the way I shut the others out, so maybe I can destroy you. Must destroy you?

Of course I got lipstick all over my lil' nose in about 5 seconds, nothing's changed.

I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.

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

It is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others-for their use and to our detriment.

The more I use my strength in the service of my vision the less I am afraid.

Learning not to crumple before these uncertainties fuels my resolve to print myself upon the texture of each day fully rather than forever.

You'd better name yourself, because, if you don't others will do it for you.

In the recognition of loving lies the answer to despair.

There are no honest poems about dead women.

What I leave behind has a life of its own.

All writers have periods when they stop writing, when they cannot write, and this is always painful and terrible because writing is like breathing.

We recognize that all knowledge is mediated through the body and that feeling is a profound source of information about our lives

Say what you have to say now! Don't wait until you're sending blips from the other side.

what you hear in my voice is fury, not suffering. Anger, not moral authority

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.

Hatred is the fury of those who do not share our goals, and its object is death and destruction. Anger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change.

We have too often been expected to speak all things to all people and speak everyone else's position but our own.

It does not pay to cherish symbols when the substance lies so close at hand.

I train myself for triumph by knowing it is mine no matter what.

Women on trains have a life that is exactly livable the precision of days flashing past

Out of my flesh that hungers and my mouth that knows comes the shape I am seeking for reason.

Pain is an event ... Suffering, on the other hand, is the nightmare reliving of unscrutinized and unmetabolized pain.

Who I am is what fulfills me and fulfills the vision I have of the world.

Those of us forged in the crucibles of difference know that survival is not an academic skill.

I have died too many deaths that were not mine.

The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. . . .

I am a post-mastectomy woman who believes our feelings need voice in order to be recognized, respected, and of use.

Hatred is a death wish for the hated, not a life wish for anything else.

I am very, very happy for Alice Walker.

Somedays, if bitterness were a whetstone, I could be sharp as grief.

You will never be able to defend your city while shouting.

I find this curious - two photos from today, one edited so my skin is perfect and one real. remember flaws are ok.

...oppression is as American as apple pie...

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

and when we speak we are afraidour words will not be heardnor welcomedbut when we are silentwe are still afraidSo it is better to speakrememberingwe were never meant to survive

We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired.

Maybe the internet raised us, or maybe people are jerks.

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

I seek no favor untouched by blood.

We might be hollow, but we're brave