Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Ralph Ellison More Quotes by Ralph Ellison More Quotes From Ralph Ellison By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication. Ralph Ellison communication identity writing Life is as the sea, art a ship in which man conquers life's crushing formlessness, reducing it to a course, a series of swells, tides and wind currents inscribed on a chart. Ralph Ellison crush men art The antidote to hubris, to overweening pride, is irony, that capacity to discover and systematize ideas. Ralph Ellison irony pride ideas That which we remember is, more often than not, that which we would like to have been; or that which we hope to be. Thus our memory and our identity are ever at odds; our history ever a tale told by inattentive idealists. Ralph Ellison odds identity memories I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. Ralph Ellison being-yourself individuality asking The truth is the light and the light is the truth. Ralph Ellison truth-is light We don't all dig Shakespeare uniformly, or even 'Little Red Riding Hood.' The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life. Ralph Ellison understanding humanity art Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own good—only /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop? Ralph Ellison merry-go-round sacrifice wanted And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. Ralph Ellison my-own problem way I was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man. Ralph Ellison trying men years Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled 'file and forget.' Ralph Ellison possibility action forget That ... is how the world moves: Not like an arrow, but a boomerang. Ralph Ellison arrows life moving I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Ralph Ellison black-history men people For, like almost everyone else in our country, I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action, but now, after first being 'for' society and then 'against' it, I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a phrase - still it's a good phrase and a good view of life, and a man shouldn't accept any other; that much I've learned underground. Until some gang succeeds in putting the world in a strait jacket, its definition is possibility. Ralph Ellison hard-work attitude country America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain. Ralph Ellison strands woven america My hole is warm and full of light. Ralph Ellison warm holes light I suspect that all the agony that goes into writing is borne precisely because the writer longs for acceptance-but it must be acceptance on his own terms. Ralph Ellison agony acceptance writing the world is just as concrete, ornery, vile, and sublimely wonderful as before, only now I better understand my relation to it and it to me. Ralph Ellison ornery wonderful world I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love. Ralph Ellison invisibility pain hurt Having tried to give pattern to the chaos which lives within the pattern of your certainties, I must come out, I must emerge. Ralph Ellison chaos patterns giving
