When we define ourselves, when I define myself, the place in which I am like you and the place in which I am not like you, I'm not excluding you from the joining - I'm broadening the joining. Audre Lorde More Quotes by Audre Lorde More Quotes From Audre Lorde How a diamond comes into a knot of flame How a sound comes into a word, coloured By who pays what for speaking. Some words are open. Love is a word another kind of open — As a diamond comes into a knot of flame I am black because I come from the earth's inside. Take my word for jewel in your open light. Audre Lorde light jewels love-is 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. Audre Lorde anger hate grief Somedays, if bitterness were a whetstone, I could be sharp as grief. Audre Lorde bitterness grief ifs I learned to read from Mrs. Augusta Baker, the children's librarian. ... If that was the only good deed that lady ever did in her life, may she rest in peace. Because that deed saved my life, if not sooner, then later, when sometimes the only thing I had to hold on to was knowing I could read. Audre Lorde rest-in-peace reading children When you are a member of an out-group, and you challenge others with whom you share this outsider position to examine some aspect of their lives that distorts differences between you, then there can be a great deal of pain. Audre Lorde differences pain challenges Learning not to crumple before these uncertainties fuels my resolve to print myself upon the texture of each day fully rather than forever. Audre Lorde texture each-day forever Within the lesbian community I am Black, and within the Black community I am a lesbian. Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black. There is no hierarchy of oppression. Audre Lorde issues gay men We have too often been expected to speak Audre Lorde position speak people Differences must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Audre Lorde sparks creativity differences You will never be able to defend your city while shouting. Audre Lorde shouting able cities But in a crunch, when all our asses are in the sling, it looks like it is easier to deal with the samenesses. When we deal with sameness only, we develop weapons that we use against each other when the differences become apparent. And we wipe each other out - Black men and women can wipe each other out - far more effectively than outsiders do. Audre Lorde black differences men Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Audre Lorde women-empowerment next littles If what we need to dream, to move our spirits most deeply and directly toward and through promise, is discounted as a luxury, then we give up the core -- the fountain -- of our power, our womanness; we give up the future of our worlds. (From "Poetry is Not a Luxury") Audre Lorde giving-up dream moving We're supposed to see "universal" love as heterosexual. What I insist upon in my work is that there is no such thing as universal love in literature. Audre Lorde kinky universal-love literature The absence of any consideration of lesbian consciousness or the consciousness of third world women leaves a serious gap within this conference. . . . Audre Lorde heterosexuality-is gaps world When I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid. Audre Lorde i-am service vision strength
