I'm not a separatist. The imagination is integrative. That's how you make the new -- by putting something else with what you've got. And I'm unashamedly an American integrationist. Ralph Ellison More Quotes by Ralph Ellison More Quotes From Ralph Ellison It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow. Ralph Ellison growscommittedcommitment Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Ralph Ellison failureinspiringlife Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it. Ralph Ellison confidencepowerinspirational I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me. Ralph Ellison glassesmirrorslife If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit. Ralph Ellison singingrealteaching At best Americans give but a limited attention to history. Too much happens too rapidly, and before we can evaluate it, or exhaust its meaning or pleasure, there is something new to concern us. Ours is the tempo of the motion picture, not that of the still camera, and we waste experience as we wasted the forest. Ralph Ellison too-muchattentiongiving Education is all a matter of building bridges. Ralph Ellison high-school-graduationbridgeseducation America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description. Ralph Ellison fatewovenamerica I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed. Ralph Ellison grandparentafrican-americangrandmother When I discover who I am, I'll be free. Ralph Ellison inspiringinspirationallife What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do? Ralph Ellison expectedlosttrying Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form...without light I am not only invisible but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death...the truth is the light and light is the truth. Ralph Ellison lightgivingreality There are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers. Ralph Ellison dangerousworld Power, for the writer....lies in his ability to reveal if only a little bit more about the complexity of humanity. Ralph Ellison humanitylittleslying God is love, I said, but art's the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity. Ralph Ellison shadowidentityart The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike. Ralph Ellison shadowwritingpast Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear. Ralph Ellison stylemusicianplay Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it." Stephen Covey "It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow. Ralph Ellison circlesworkcommitment Injustice wears ever the same harsh face wherever it shows itself. Ralph Ellison harshinjusticefaces All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority. The universal in the novel-and isn't that what we're all clamoring for these days?-is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance. Ralph Ellison individualminoritiesmen
