The job of the writer is to make revolution irresistible. Toni Cade Bambara More Quotes by Toni Cade Bambara More Quotes From Toni Cade Bambara The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible Toni Cade Bambara african-american revolution art Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I've seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. Toni Cade Bambara atmosphere language-words taken Revolution begins with the self, in the self.... We'd better take the time to fashion revolutionary selves, revolutionary lives, revolutionary relationships. Mouth don't win the war. Toni Cade Bambara fashion winning war Writing is a legitimate way, an important way, to participate in the empowerment of the community that names me. Toni Cade Bambara community names writing TAKE HEART TO FLAT OUT DECIDE TO BE WELL AND STRIDE INTO THE FUTURE, SANE AND Toni Cade Bambara ambush flats heart Write a lot and hit the streets. A writer who doesn't keep up with what's out there ain't gonna be out there. Toni Cade Bambara streets writing The dream is real, my friends. The failure to make it work is the unreality. Toni Cade Bambara failure real dream For people sometimes believed that it was safer to live with complaints, Toni Cade Bambara grief self heart What can defeat greed, technological superiority, and legal lawlessness ... is discipline, consciousness, and unity. Toni Cade Bambara unity greed discipline She [my mother] gave me permission to wonder, to dawdle, to daydream. Toni Cade Bambara daydreaming mother wonder Revolution begins with the self, in the self. Toni Cade Bambara revolution self justice When you dream, you dialogue with aspects of yourself that normally are not with you in the daytime and you discover that you know a great deal more than you thought you did. Toni Cade Bambara aspect dialogue dream Writing is one of the ways I participate in transformation. Toni Cade Bambara transformation writing way Reappraise the past, re-evaluate where we've been, clarify where we are, and predict or anticipate where we are headed. . . . Toni Cade Bambara anticipate anticipation past An artist represents an oppressed people and makes revolution irresistible. Toni Cade Bambara revolution people art My responsibility to myself, my neighbors, my family and the human family is to try to tell the truth. Toni Cade Bambara telling-the-truth responsibility trying Take away the miseries and you take away some folks' reason for living. Toni Cade Bambara misery personality life Our lives preserved. How it was; and how it be. Passing it along in the relay. That is what I work to do: to produce stories that save our lives. Toni Cade Bambara stories work life All writers, musicians, artists, choreographers/dancers, etc., work with the stuff of their experiences. It's the translation of it, the conversion of it, the shaping of it that makes for the drama. Toni Cade Bambara music dance drama When we ever invited the beast to dinner he didn't come in and swipe the napkins and start taking notes on the tablecloth 'bout how to take over the whole house? Toni Cade Bambara napkins dinner house