Quotes from Ashley Bryan

There are so many ways in which we learn about life and the self. Each day opens paths to this exploration. For many of us, books play a major role in that adventure

Through all my years enslaved, I've listened to ancestral voices echoing through my weariness, giving me strength to withstand injustice, to believe in myself and survive. May our songs and stories keep alive in us the will to grow in learning. The longing to be free!

Revealing aspects of the mystery of being human is life's inexhaustible research. Through the adventures of art, we find the meaning of our lives.

I've walked a long trail, a long trail of years flushed with tears. Tears of remembrance. Years of driven labor have not driven the ancestral thoughts out of me. My memory of teaching— surrounded by children, singing songs of our people, the stories of our history— lives always with me... Song shields our hearts from abuse, draws us together, strengthens our lives.

There is no time to fail.