If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest. — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
You'd better name yourself, because, if you don't others will do it for you. — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
If our history has taught us anything, it is that action for change directed against the external conditions of our oppressions is… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
Raising Black children-female and male-in the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon is perilous and chancy. If they cannot love and… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
It is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others-for their use and to… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
It is not the destiny of Black America to repeat white America's mistakes. But we will, if we mistake the trappings of… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
I was going to die, if not sooner, then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
I learned to read from Mrs. Augusta Baker, the children's librarian. ... If that was the only good deed that lady ever… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
Raising Black children — female and male — in the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon is perilous and chancy. If… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
If white American feminist theory need not deal with the differences between us, and the resulting difference in our oppressions, then how… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
Whenever a conscious Black woman raises her voice on issues central to her existence, somebody is going to call her strident, because… — Audre Lorde Copy Share Image
Every woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me, where I loved some invaluable piece of myself apart from me-so different… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
There are many kinds of open. . . Love is a word, another kind of open. . . Take my word for jewel in your open light. — Audre Lorde Copy Share
I can't really define it in sexual terms alone although our sexuality is so energizing why not enjoy it too? — Audre Lorde Copy Share
“For once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand from ourselves and from our life-pursuits that… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
the fear of death is that you are dying too soon. Nobody wants to, but at the point that you die you can pray… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
“There is an important difference between openness and naïveté. Not everyone has good intentions nor means me well. I remind myself I do not… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
I learned to read from Mrs. Augusta Baker, the children's librarian. ... If that was the only good deed that lady ever did in… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change,… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
“I think that in America there are certain kinds of problems and in Russia there are certain kinds of problems, but basically, when you… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy,… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
“I forgot what we were celebrating. Because we were always celebrating something, a new job, a new poem, a new love, a new dream.” — Audre Lorde Copy Share
How a diamond comes into a knot of flame How a sound comes into a word, coloured By who pays what for speaking. Some… — Audre Lorde Copy Share
