Quote

The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings.

Audre Lorde

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Audre Lorde
Age: 58 †
Born: 1934
Born: February 18
Died: 1992
Died: November 17
Essayist
Feminist
Librarian
Novelist
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
New York City
New York
Audre Geraldine Lorde
Measure
Chaos
Sense
Feelings
Self
Beginnings
Erotic
Strongest

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When I speak of the erotic, then I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.
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Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak.
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The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.
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The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation.
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Tell them about how you're never really a whole person if you remain silent, because there's always that one little piece inside you that wants to be spoken out, and if you keep ignoring it, it gets madder and madder and hotter and hotter, and if you don't speak it out one day it will just up and punch you in the mouth from the inside.
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Tomorrow belongs to those of us who conceive of it as belonging to everyone who lend the best of ourselves to it, and with joy.
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I learned so much from listening to people. And all I knew was, the only thing I had was honesty and openness.
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Well, I do not want to be tolerated, nor misnamed. I want to be recognized.
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Raising Black children-female and male-in the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon is perilous and chancy. If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they will probably not survive.
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. . . it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are-until the poem-nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.
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Those of us forged in the crucibles of difference know that survival is not an academic skill.
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Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.
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It does not pay to cherish symbols when the substance lies so close at hand.
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Even the smallest victory is never to be taken for granted. Each victory must be applauded.
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It's possible to take that as a personal metaphor and then multiply it to a people, a race, a sex, a time. If we can keep this thing going long enough, if we can survive and teach what we know, we'll make it.
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I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.
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The fear that we cannot grow beyond whatever distortions we may find within ourselves keeps us docile and loyal and obedient, externally defined, and leads us to accept many facets of our own oppression as women.
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I train myself for triumph by knowing it is mine no matter what.
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The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.
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Divide and conquer must become define and empower.
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