--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: All novels are about certain minorities…" description: "\"All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority.\" — Ralph Ellison" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/ralph-ellison-2676_books_all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities_370774.png" --- # All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is… ![“All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority.” quote by Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/ralph-ellison-2676_books_all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities_370774.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/ralph-ellison-2676_books_all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities_370774.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/ralph-ellison-2676_books_all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities_370774.png) > “All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority.” [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote says that each person is a unique minority, distinct from the majority. **In simple terms:** Everyone is a unique minority. Key Takeaway Recognize and honor individuality. Themes identity minority individuality society conformity Mood reflective thoughtful Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - personal relationships - workplace dynamics - creative expression - political activism Key Concepts existentialism social theory Questions to Reflect On - How does seeing yourself as a minority affect your choices? - What responsibilities arise from this perspective? A Different Perspective It may overlook collective experiences that shape identity. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Certain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/certain/) [Certain Minorities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/certain-minorities-3382974/) [Identity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/identity/) [Individual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual/) [Individual Minority](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual-minority-3286495/) [Minorities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/minorities/) [Minorities Individual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/minorities-individual-3382973/) [Minority](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/minority/) [Novel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/novel/) ## Related quotes > [All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority. The universal in the novel-and isn't that what we're all clamoring for these…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities-the-individual-is-a-minority-2/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [The individual will always be a minority. If a man is in a minority of one, we lock him up.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/oliver-wendell-holmes-jr/the-individual-will-always-be-a-minority-if-a-man-is-in-a-minority-of/) [Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/oliver-wendell-holmes-jr/) > [It doesn't matter what the colour of your skin is, your sexual preference, the region where you were born, your gender. We're all equal...…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jair-bolsonaro/it-doesn-t-matter-what-the-colour-of-your-skin-is-your-sexual/) [Jair Bolsonaro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jair-bolsonaro/) > [For a privileged minority, Western democracy provides the leisure, the facilities, and the training to seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/for-a-privileged-minority-western-democracy-provides-the-leisure-the/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ayn-rand/the-smallest-minority-on-earth-is-the-individual-those-who-deny/) [Ayn Rand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ayn-rand/) > [I don't think restaurants should refuse to serve minority people. They are quite tasty when prepared correctly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/zach-braff/i-don-t-think-restaurants-should-refuse-to-serve-minority-people-they/) [Zach Braff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/zach-braff/) > [I feel Irish-Americans are the forgotten minority group. Nobody else is making films about them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-burns/i-feel-irish-americans-are-the-forgotten-minority-group-nobody-else/) [Edward Burns](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-burns/) > [If the minority is able to successfully undo the Affordable Care Act by blackmail, it will be the undoing of the democratic nature of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jerrold-nadler/if-the-minority-is-able-to-successfully-undo-the-affordable-care-act/) [Jerrold Nadler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jerrold-nadler/) > [You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-orwell/you-preferred-to-be-a-lunatic-a-minority-of-one/) [George Orwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-orwell/) > [“Those who benefit from unearned privilege are too often quick to discount those who don't.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dashanne-stokes/those-who-benefit-from-unearned-privilege-are-too-often-quick-to/) [DaShanne Stokes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dashanne-stokes/) > [Candidates should be extremely cautious in displaying a sense of humor. If he or she tells a joke with a point, there is almost…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-germond/candidates-should-be-extremely-cautious-in-displaying-a-sense-of/) [Jack Germond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-germond/) > [I grew up in that minority. I grew up in the South, in Roswell, Georgia, and it was heavily white, Baptist, conservative. And the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-cross/i-grew-up-in-that-minority-i-grew-up-in-the-south-in-roswell-georgia/) [David Cross](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-cross/) > [We're never all going to agree with each other. We have to learn to value the diversity. It's one of the presumable principles of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-r-ehrlich/we-re-never-all-going-to-agree-with-each-other-we-have-to-learn-to/) [Paul R. Ehrlich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-r-ehrlich/) > [People are not fundamentally bad. It only takes the smallest of correctives to take care of that tiny minority that wants to disrupt the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jimmy-wales/people-are-not-fundamentally-bad-it-only-takes-the-smallest-of/) [Jimmy Wales](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jimmy-wales/) > [And one day our grandkids will ask us, 'What was it like to be a minority?'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christy-haubegger/and-one-day-our-grandkids-will-ask-us-what-was-it-like-to-be-a/) [Christy Haubegger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christy-haubegger/) ## More by Ralph Ellison > [“Civil wars...are the best wars for the writer...because they have a way of continuing long afterwl wars between nations are resolved; because, with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/civil-wars-are-the-best-wars-for-the-writer-because-they-have-a-way/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [“But what a feeling can come over a man just from seeing the things he believes in and hopes for symbolized in the concrete…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/but-what-a-feeling-can-come-over-a-man-just-from-seeing-the-things-he/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [I suspect that all the agony that goes into writing is borne precisely because the writer longs for acceptance-but it must be acceptance on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/i-suspect-that-all-the-agony-that-goes-into-writing-is-borne/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own good—only /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/everywhere-i-ve-turned-somebody-has-wanted-to-sacrifice-me-for-my-own/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [Power, for the writer…lies in his ability to reveal if only a little bit more about the complexity of humanity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/power-for-the-writer-lies-in-his-ability-to-reveal-if-only-a-little/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [...and yet I am what they think I am.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/and-yet-i-am-what-they-think-i-am/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [And while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown I awoke one afternoon to find that my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/and-while-the-ice-was-melting-to-form-a-flood-in-which-i-threatened/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [“Do they come to bury the others or to be entombed to give life or to receive it?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/do-they-come-to-bury-the-others-or-to-be-entombed-to-give-life-or-to/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [“They could laugh at him but they couldn't ignore him”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/they-could-laugh-at-him-but-they-couldn-t-ignore-him/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [Commercial rock 'n' roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church music an obscene looting of a cultural expression.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/commercial-rock-n-roll-music-is-a-brutalization-of-the-stream-of/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [“All dreamers and sleepwalkers must pay the price, and even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/all-dreamers-and-sleepwalkers-must-pay-the-price-and-even-the/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [“Those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization--pardon me, our whole culture (an important distinction, I've heard)--which might sound like a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/those-two-spots-are-among-the-darkest-of-our-whole-civilization/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [“Above the decorous walking around me, sounds of footsteps leaving the verandas of far-flung buildings and moving toward the walks and over the walks…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/above-the-decorous-walking-around-me-sounds-of-footsteps-leaving-the/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/and-my-problem-was-that-i-always-tried-to-go-in-everyone-s-way-but-my/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) > [I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/i-am-one-of-the-most-irresponsible-beings-that-ever-lived/) [Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) [Explore all 154 Ralph Ellison quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/) ## More Books quotes > [I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aiden-wilson-tozer/i-think-a-new-world-will-arise-out-of-the-religious-mists-when-we/) [Aiden Wilson Tozer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aiden-wilson-tozer/) > [If I had a dollar for every time I couldn’t sleep, I could buy a billion locks and finally read a book in peace.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aesop-rock/if-i-had-a-dollar-for-every-time-i-couldn-t-sleep-i-could-buy-a/) [Aesop Rock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aesop-rock/) > [If what I write is literature, I guess you'd better emphasize the 'litter.'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lydia-lunch/if-what-i-write-is-literature-i-guess-you-d-better-emphasize-the/) [Lydia Lunch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lydia-lunch/) > [My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-thompson-walker/my-sentences-got-sharper-and-my-stories-more-efficient-and-i/) [Karen Thompson Walker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-thompson-walker/) > [Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-lang/young-men-especially-in-america-write-to-me-and-ask-me-to-recommend-a/) [Andrew Lang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-lang/) > [“Within the pages of books, I've journeyed to Mandalay, the Milky Way and Santa Fe, without once having to leave my armchair.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-ansbro/within-the-pages-of-books-i-ve-journeyed-to-mandalay-the-milky-way/) [Kevin Ansbro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-ansbro/) > [The Rosary is the book of the blind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fulton-j-sheen/the-rosary-is-the-book-of-the-blind/) [Fulton J. Sheen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fulton-j-sheen/) > [“Tacitus did not write a most dangerous book. His readers made it so.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-k-krebs/tacitus-did-not-write-a-most-dangerous-book-his-readers-made-it-so/) [Christopher K. 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There is nothing like a child who knows more about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/floyd-cooper/i-have-many-who-keep-me-going-i-am-very-fortunate-in-this-sense-there/) [Floyd Cooper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/floyd-cooper/) > [I think books in which people are really happy and things are going well are probably the most challenging novels there are to write,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anna-quindlen/i-think-books-in-which-people-are-really-happy-and-things-are-going/) [Anna Quindlen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anna-quindlen/) > [It's like the query letter problem that I just mentioned, magnified a hundredfold. You might be good at telling a story, but that doesn't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrick-rothfuss/it-s-like-the-query-letter-problem-that-i-just-mentioned-magnified-a/) [Patrick Rothfuss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrick-rothfuss/) > [“Be careful about reading health books. 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And thus the eyes of the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/betsy-lerner/but-editors-are-still-the-world-s-readers-and-thus-the-eyes-of-the/) [Betsy Lerner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/betsy-lerner/) [Browse all 59,485 Books quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ralph Ellison" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities-the-individual-is-a-minority/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Books" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities-the-individual-is-a-minority/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/ralph-ellison-2676_books_all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities_370774.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/ralph-ellison-2676_books_all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities_370774.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/563/ralph-ellison-2676_books_all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities_370774.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority.” — Ralph Ellison", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Ralph Ellison", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "All novels are about certain minorities:...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities-the-individual-is-a-minority/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/all-novels-are-about-certain-minorities-the-individual-is-a-minority/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```