Quotes from Lorraine Hansberry

I know he's rich. He knows he's rich, too.

RUTH No—I'm just sleepy as the devil. What kind of eggs you want? WALTER Not scrambled. (RUTH starts to scramble eggs)

TSHEMBE I do not recall that the Europeans have ever been exactly overwhelmed by morality—black or white! Or do you think they have suddenly become impressed because Kumalo is saying the black man wishes freedom? We have been saying that for generations. They only listen now because they are forced to. Take away the violence and who will hear the man of peace? (He sits on the box, an island in a sea of cloth) It is the way of the world, hadn't you noticed?

TSHEMBE Maybe that's what's botched up all the revolutions so far! (Erupting in spite of himself) Mr. Morris, your concern for nonviolence is a little late, don't you think? Where were you when we protested without violence and against violence? We did not hear from you then! Where were you when they were chopping off the right hands of our young men by the hundreds—by the tribe?

It's all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don't accept. It's not important. I am not going out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don't believe in God. I don't even think about it. It's just that I get tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no blasted God—there is only man and it is he who makes miracles!

Obviously, the most oppressed group of any oppressed group will be its women, who are twice oppressed. So I imagine that they react accordingly: as oppression makes people more militant, women become twice militant, because they are twice oppressed.

GEORGE : Oh, don't be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric. BENEATHA: How can something that's natural be eccentric? GEORGE: That's what being eccentric means—being natural. Get dressed.

In my mother's house there is still God. Act 1, Scene 1 ~ A Raisin in the Sun

The Murchisons are honest-to-God-real-foe-rich colored people, and the only people in the world who are more snobbish than rich white people are rich colored people. I though everybody knew that.

The poets have been right in all these centuries, darling; even in its astounding imperfection this earth of ours is magnificent. But oh this human race!

In the twentieth century men everywhere like to breathe; and the Negro citizen still cannot, you see, breathe.

The things he taught me were great things: that all racism was rotten, white or black, that everything is political; that people tend to be indescribably beautiful and uproariously funny. He also taught me that they have enemies who are grotesque and that freedom lies in the recognition of all of that and other things.

It isn't as if we got up today and said, What can we do to irritate America? It's because, since 1619, Negroes have tried every method of communication, of transformation of their situation, from petition to the vote— everything—we've tried it all; there isn't anything that hasn't been exhausted.

I am a writer. I suppose I think that the highest gift that man has is art, and I am audacious enough to think of myself as an artist - that there is both joy and beauty and illumination and communion between people to be achieved through the dissection of personality

BENEATHA How can something that's natural be eccentric? GEORGE That's what being eccentric means—being natural.

CHARLIE Have you ever wondered—I am being devil's advocate now—if just possibly he hadn't "capitalized," so to speak, on the backwardness he found here? MARTA (Tightly) Mr. Morris, I am not a very complicated person. I believe that people are what they do. You may think it simple-minded of me if you like—but if you don't understand the depth of his sacrifice merely by being here—

RICE Please inform the Reverend that if there are no military operations there will be no Mission.

And don't call them terrorists: that's for the settlers. Call them rebels, or revolutionaries. (Looking off with his own sad irony) Or fools. But never terrorists.

I think it's very simple that the whole idea of debating whether or not Negroes should defend themselves is an insult.

TSHEMBE It may be, Mr. Morris, that I have developed counterassumptions because I have had—(Mimicking lightly but cruelly)—too many long, lo-o-ong "talks" wherein the white intellectual begins by suggesting not only fellowship but the universal damnation of imperialism. But that, you see, is always only the beginning. Then the real game is begun.

MAMA Well, little boys' hides ain't as tough as Southside roaches. You better get over there behind the bureau. I seen one marching out of there like Napoleon yesterday.

TSHEMBE (Whirling on him, words flying) And just why should we be able to "talk" so easily? What is this marvelous nonsense with you Americans? For a handshake, a grin, a cigarette and half a glass of whiskey you want three hundred years to disappear—and in five minutes!

TSHEMBE Perhaps my obsessions have made me myopic! In this light, for instance, I really cannot tell you from Major Rice! (Peering close into the other's face, he grins) You all really do look alike, you know Ã¢â'¬Â¦

CHARLIE (Incredulous) Matoseh, I don't believe it—that you can sit here, under this very roof where you learned to read and write—and deny the dedication of those who came here— TSHEMBE (Utter dismissal) I do not deny it. It is simply that the conscience, such as it is, of imperialism is Ã¢â'¬Â¦ irrelevant.