Alice Walker

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

Sexuality is one of the ways that we become enlightened, actually, because it leads us to self-knowledge.

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

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

Women have to summon courage to fulfill dormant dreams.

Creation is a sustained period of bliss.

Every soul is to be cherished, every flower is to bloom.

During my years of being close to people engaged in changing the world I have seen fear turn into courage. Sorrow into joy. Funerals into celebration. Because whatever the consequences, people, standing side by side, have expressed who they really are, and that ultimately they believe in the love of the world and each other enough to be that.

Writing about people helps us to understand them, and understanding them helps us to accept them as part of ourselves.

As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can. _x000D_ As long as the Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit, I can, because I'm the Earth. I won't give up until the Earth gives up.

If I could live as a tree, as a river, as the moon, as the sun, as a star, as the earth, as a rock, I would. ...Writing permits me to experience life as any number of strange creations.

There is no graceful way to carry hatred.

As I get older, I realize that the thing I value the most is good-heartednes s.

A writer's heart, a poet's heart, an artist's heart, a musician's heart is always breaking. It is through that broken window that we see the world.

The artist...is the voice of the people.

As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can.

Healing begins where the wound was made.

'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say.

Wherever I have knocked, a door has opened. Wherever I have wandered, a path has appeared.

The sight of a Black nun strikes their sentimentality; and, as I am unalterably rooted in native ground, they consider me a work of primitive art, housed in a magical color; the incarnation of civilized, anti-heathenism, and the fruit of a triumphing idea.

The Animals of the planet are in desperate peril and they are fully aware of this. No less than human beings are doing in all parts of the world, they are seeking sanctuary.