Quotes from Ruby Dee

I never remember, like, saying, 'Well, I'm going to belong - join the civil rights movement.'

When I was young, I dreamt of being a starlet in Hollywood. But there comes a point in every African American's life when you realize the limitations, that you could only play maids or some little supporting role. Even Lena Horne couldn't get good parts.

I think you mustn't tell your body, you mustn't tell your soul, 'I'm going to retire.' You may be changing your life emphasis, but there's still things that you have in mind to do that now seems the right time to do.

Black History Month is fine, but we need more months of the year to celebrate all the people on this earth. After all, we're all creatures of the same God.

The divorce rate would be lower if instead of marrying for better or worse people would marry for good.

Sorrow for not understanding like I understand now the unpredictable, profound journey that marriage is.

I didn't realize it until I was grown how necessary it is for good people to be tough.

Gangsters lived in the neighborhood. They weren't apart from it. Their relationships with people were both benevolent and scary.

I think I have something unique that I'd like to share.

You're not supposed to go into business with the sole purpose of putting your neighbor out of business. This is not the United States of Corporate America.

I do remember the numbers runners, I do remember the poverty and bread lines. Harlem stays with you forever.

My stepmother wanted to be an actress.

Before I latched onto the concept of stereotypes, not once did I reckon with the fact that I would never be a 'Hollywood starlet.'

I'm very much interested in getting prisons off the stock market. I'm very much interested in upgrading the public school system... and taking a second look at capital punishment.

God has use for all the old people.

My constant battle is putting aside time wasters, and I have to watch out for procrastination. Staying on the path of something you're trying to create has much to do with having confidence in yourself and in your capacity to realize the things you want out of life.

Black women have to know the historical and everyday struggles of black men, and our men have to know the struggles of black women in America.

An Oscar nomination? That would be a very satisfying thing, I'm sure. I would appreciate the thought. It would be like taking your hat off as an actor to all the people who walk through you.

Marriage is really an exciting adventure.

That we arrived at fifty years together is due as much to luck as to love, and a talent for knowing, when we stumble, where to fall, and how to get up again.

The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity.

The world has improved mostly because unorthodox people did unorthodox things. Not surprisingly, they had the courage and daring to think they could make a difference.

That's what being young is all about. You have the courage and the daring to think that you can make a difference.

Marriage, like love, is an aspiration. It's a process.