Quotes from Alice Walker

I'm for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

It is justice and respect that I want the world to dust off and put - without delay, and with tenderness - back on the head of the Palestinian child. It will be imperfect justice and respect because the injustice and disrespect have been so severe. But I believe we are right to try.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.

Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception.

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers' names.

The most important question in the world is, 'Why is the child crying'

The quietly pacifist peaceful always die to make room for men who shout.

Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.

I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.

have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.

What the mind doesn't understand, it worships or fears.

Be nobody's darling; Be an outcast. Take the contradictions Of your life And wrap around You like a shawl, To parry stones To keep you warm.

Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance and holler, just trying to be loved.

Activism is my rent for living on the planet.

All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men. But I never thought I'd have to fight in my own house. She let out her breath. I loves Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me.

Even as I hold you, I am letting you go.