Quotes About Silenced

I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.

As a kid, I felt like I had no voice, felt like I had no options, and that's what drove me to this really dark place.

I feel that, as a person of color, I've always been interested in the stories that are quiet and the stories that often get overlooked.

The slaves themselves were powerless to create any written record of what they witnessed, or to publicize it in any way beyond the discreet oral circles of plantation life. What can be known of Sharpe's method and motives must be seen through the lens of the Jamaican prosecutorial narrative, which sought to understand him only to the point of gathering sufficient evidence to justify his hanging.

We had to be seen because we couldn't be heard.

Art made tongue-tied by authority.

Free speech is not really free if it costs you all that you have.

You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.

The generations of lives, experiences, and voices of marginalized and silenced Americans offer an array of diverse interpretations of U.S. history that have largely gone unheard, unacknowledged, and unrewarded. Without their perspectives, we are presented with an incomplete and incongruent story that is at best a disservice to the historical record and at worst a means of maintaining an unjust status quo.

Even for women without children, trading hours that produce income for hours that produce "only" art seems like a foolish decision. What a loss for the world, though, to have women's voices silenced because art is our last priority.

I'm out there arguing the Labor case. I will do it anywhere and everywhere that I can. I do it within various communities across Australia where I am able to make a positive contribution. And let me tell you, my voice won't be silenced in the public debate because the issue at stake for Australia are so stark.

Never walk over a writer, I said to myself, unless you're positive he can't rise us behind you. If you're going to burn him, make sure he's dead. Because if he's alive, he will talk: talk in written form, on the printed, permanent page.

There's much protest, but it falls on deaf ears.

All these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold. The Kings and Captains whose words moved ships. But not one word from the cargo. The thoughts of the "black ivory," the "coin of Africa," had no market value. Africa's ambassadors to the New World have come and worked and died, and left their spoor, but no recorded thought.

ALL THESE WORDS FROM THE SELLER, BUT NOT ONE WORD FROM THE SOLD." "All these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold. The Kings and Captains whose words moved ships. But not one word from the cargo. The thoughts of the "black ivory," the "coin of Africa," had no market value. Africa's ambassadors to the New World have come and worked and died, and left their spoor, but no recorded thought.

For her too, she had words on her lips, which died unborn, lay in her mind and turned to poison.

Paradigm He was aware of his task and people were waiting for his words but he was forbidden to speak. Now where he lives he is free to speak but nobody listens and, moreover, he forgot what he had to say.

I hope that I will be the last victim in China's long record of treating words as crimes.

We must be willing to listen to those whose voices have been silenced, to seek out their stories, and to honor their experiences. Only then can we truly understand the complexities of our history, and the challenges we face in the present." (p. 138)

They owned the means of production, and therefore the means of representation, and the best that we could ever hope for was to get a word in edgewise before our anonymous deaths.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? If you hear a voice within saying 'You are not a painter' then by all means paint – and that voice will be silenced.

A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!

There's maybe ten places in the country where free speech still works, but this isn't one of them.

But always in the back of your throat is this scream, barely suppressed.