I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
Interpretation
True freedom is linked to the freedom of all, regardless of their circumstances.
Audre Lorde emphasizes the interconnectedness of liberation and justice in this quote. She asserts that no one can claim to be truly free if others are still oppressed, suggesting that our moral responsibility extends beyond our personal circumstances and calls for solidarity in the fight against injustice.
In practice
During a feminist rally, this quote can inspire unity among all advocates for women's rights.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.
I have always marched to my own beat, and most frequently, it was inconsistent not only with my own immediate family, but with my culture as well.
When two or more people agree on an issue, I form on the other side.
If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection.
Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; without the life, there is no living.
IMAGINATION, n. A warehouse of facts, with poet and liar in joint ownership.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.