Quotes about Identity

if you talk to a man in a second language , your talking to his brain ,if you talk to him in his mother language you're talking to his heart -

She married a man who soon left her; that man became a myth; and then that myth returned home and proved to be just a man after all.

What freedom am I being offered when my very South African citizenship is not respected?

I really hope no white person ever has causeto write about mebecause they never understandBlack love is Black wealth and they'llprobably talk about my hard childhoodand never understand thatall the while I was quite happy.

I always loved English because whatever human beings are, we are storytellers. It is our stories that give a light to the future. When I went to college I became a history major because history is such a wonderful story of who we think we are. English is much more a story of who we really are.

Style has a profound meaning to Black Americans. If we can't drive, we will invent walks and the world will envy the dexterity of our feet. If we can't have ham, we will boil chitterlings; if we are given rotten peaches, we will make cobblers; if given scraps, we will make quilts; take away our drums, and we will clap our hands. We prove the human spirit will prevail. We will take what we have to make what we need. We need confidence in our knowledge of who we are.

One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.

Do not be awe struck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can.

To someone from nowhere, every movement turns into a return.

What makes us most human is the possession of a unique and irreproducible story, that we take place over time and leave behind our traces.

Everything about my own face that seemed to me familiar and obvious had vanished; what remained was a distinctive scattering of dots that symbolized the planets set against the celestial vault. I cannot be someone other than I am. How awful.

Clearly I did not inherit whatever gene it is that makes it so that when you linger in a place you start to put down roots.