Alice Walker

The animals of the planet are in desperate peril... Without free animal life I believe we will lose the spiritual equivalent of oxygen.

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.

I can imagine in years to come that my papers and memorabilia, my journals and letters, will find themselves always in the company of people who care about many of the things I do.

I just like to have words that describe things correctly. Now to me, 'black feminist' does not do that. I need a word that is organic, that really comes out of the culture, that really expresses the spirit that we see in black women. And it's just... womanish.

There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

My mother was very strong. Once, she picked up a coconut and smashed it against my father's head. It taught me about women defending themselves and not collapsing in a heap.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don't.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that's something that we should think about.

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

At one point I learned transcendental meditation. This was 30-something years ago. It took me back to the way that I naturally was as a child growing up way in the country, rarely seeing people. I was in that state of oneness with creation and it was as if I didn't exist except as a part of everything.

I started out as a poet. I've always been a poet since I was 7 or 8. And so I feel myself to be fundamentally a poet who got into writing novels.

The experience of God, or in any case the possibility of experiencing God, is innate.

I love the natural world - it comes from my culture, which grew out of a people enslaved.

I feel very happy to be living in Berkeley because there are a lot of people who are politically active here.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one's children will become than for the children one's 'mature' critics often are.

My life is not to be somebody else's impact - you know what I mean?

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one's people that has not previously been taken into account.

Fiction is such a world of freedom, it's wonderful. If you want someone to fly, they can fly.

Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.

We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that's going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.

Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.