Authors:
  1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. A
  4. Audre Lorde
  5. Writing

Audre Lorde Quotes about Writing

All Audre Lorde Quotes Anger Art Black History Children Community Creativity Diversity Dying Energy Fear Feelings Feminism Giving Guilt Hatred House Inspirational Inspiring Joy Justice Language Life Literature Lying Oppression Pain Poetry Quality Racism Reality Recognition Responsibility Revolution Sexuality Silence Struggle Survival Vision Waiting Warrior Writing quotes
I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it

I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't.

Audre Lorde
Fear, Women, Writing
Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.90, Univ. Press of Mississippi

I started writing because I had a need inside of me to create something that was not there

Audre Lorde
Writing, Needs

I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side

Audre Lorde
Inspirational, Writing, Diversity
Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

All writers have periods when they stop writing, when they cannot write, and this is always painful and terrible because writing is like breathing.

Audre Lorde
Writing, Breathing, Painful
Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.16, Univ. Press of Mississippi

Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to write about, or who black writers are supposed to be, are condemned to silences in black literary circles that are as total and as destructive as any imposed by racism.

Audre Lorde
Writing, Circles, Racism
Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.85, Univ. Press of Mississippi

For those of us who write, it is necessary to scrutinize not only the truth of what we speak, but the truth of that language by which we speak it.

Audre Lorde
Truth, Writing, Language
Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.43, Crossing Press

Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is the one which is the most secret, which requires the least physical labor, the least material, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper. ... poetry has been the major voice of poor, working class, and Colored women. A room of one's own may be a necessity for writing prose, but so are reams of paper, a typewriter, and plenty of time.

Audre Lorde
Art, Writing, Typewriters

You May Also Like: