I think art is a healing force, and if we give in to the joy that can be found in art, then we are able to sustain ourselves in spite of ourselves.
Ntozake ShangeRead
one thing I don’t need is any more apologies i got sorry greetin me at my front door you can keep yrs i don’t know what to do wit em they don’t open doors or bring the sun back they don’t make me happy or get a mornin paper didn’t nobody stop usin my tears to wash cars cuz a sorry.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Apologies are often inadequate for healing emotional pain and do not change past experiences.
In this quote, Ntozake Shange expresses her disillusionment with apologies. She conveys that mere words of regret cannot fix the emotional wounds she has experienced; they do not change the past or bring genuine happiness. Instead, she indicates that the actions leading to her sadness remain, and apologies alone cannot rectify those actions or bring about healing.
Themes
ApologiesEmotional PainRelationshipsHealingRegret
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a discussion about the importance of meaningful actions in relationships rather than just words.
More from Ntozake Shange
All quotes →Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic, who can share or not share her powers. A woman with a moon falling from her mouth, roses between her legs and tiaras of Spanish moss, this woman is a consort of the spirits.
Ntozake ShangeRead
I write for young girls of color, for girls who don’t even exist yet, so that there is something there for them when they arrive. I can only change how they live, not how they think.
Ntozake ShangeRead
i usedta live in the world really be in the world free & sweet talkin good mornin & thank-you & nice day uh huh i cant now i cant be nice to nobody nice is such a rip-off regular beauty & a smile in the street is just a set-up
Ntozake ShangeRead
The slaves who were ourselves had known terror intimately, confused sunrise with pain, & accepted indifference as kindness.
Ntozake ShangeRead
It still amazes and fascinates me that women of color have kept my work alive for these many generations.
Ntozake ShangeRead
Similar quotes
When two people are together, they are not two but six: what each one is, what each one thinks he or she is, and what each one thinks the other is. And what is true for people is also true for countries and organisations.
Antonio GuterresRead
Why was she always so craven, so apologetic? He had always seen Ruth as separate, good and untainted. As a child, his parents had appeared to him as starkly black and white, the one bad and frightening, the other good and kind. Yet as he had grown older, he kept coming up hard in his mind against Ruth's willing blindness, to her constant apologia for his father, to the unshakeable allegiance to her false idol.
J. K. RowlingRead
When you have a lot of solitude, any living thing becomes a companion.
Jose MujicaRead
What interests me is why men think of women as witches. It's because they're so fascinating and exasperating, so other.
John UpdikeRead
If you love someone who's an addict and their use is life-threatening, you don't wait until they hit bottom because that can mean that they're going to die. You have to do everything you can to get them in treatment.
David SheffRead
The vow of celibacy is a matter of keeping one's word to Christ and the Church. a duty and a proof of the priest's inner maturity; it is the expression of his personal dignity.
Pope John Paul IiRead