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And this is a grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.

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
Within
Settle
Settling
Grave
Graves
Expected
Shoddy
Merely
Conventionally
Safe
Projected
Responsibility
Convenient

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What is there possibly left for us to be afraid of, after we have dealt face to face with death and not embraced it? Once I accept the existence of dying as a life process, who can ever have power over me again?
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I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do.
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The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.
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There are no honest poems about dead women.
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Anger, used, does not destroy. Hatred does.
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When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.
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I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.
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Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare.
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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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I am very, very happy for Alice Walker.
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Somedays, if bitterness were a whetstone, I could be sharp as grief.
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If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest.
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Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.
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The sixties were characterized by a heady belief in instantaneous solutions.
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You will never be able to defend your city while shouting.
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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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We must wake up knowing we have work to do and go to bed knowing we've done it.
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