Quote

It is a dangerous time to be a black woman in America. It’s a time when we are not safe in the streets or at home or at school or at work and nobody seems to be able to do anything about it. Nobody. Not us. Not our mommas. Not the police. Not the people we elected to look out for our interests. Nobody. We’re just out here. (p.53)

Pearl Cleage

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Pearl Cleage
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: December 7
Author
Novelist
Playwright
Springfield
Massachusetts
Pearl T. Cleage
Work
School
Police
Time
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Streets
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America
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Home
Nobody
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Momma
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More quotes by Pearl Cleage

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Many times, what people call 'writer's block' is the confusion that happens when a writer has a great idea, but their writing skill is not up to the task of putting that idea down on paper. I think that learning the craft of writing is critical.
Pearl Cleage
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Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television solitude is herb tea and soft music. Solitude, quality solitude, is an assertion of self-worth, because only in the stillness can we hear the truth of our own unique voices.
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Sometimes you meet yourself on the road before you have a chance to learn the appropriate greeting. Faced with your own possibilities, the hard part is knowing a speech is not required. All you have to say is yes.
Pearl Cleage
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We danced too wild, and we sang too long, and we hugged too hard, and we kissed too sweet, and howled just as loud as we wanted to howl, because by now we were all old enough to know that what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.
Pearl Cleage
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Feminism is to sexism what black nationalism is to racism the most rational response to the problem.
Pearl Cleage
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the problem with knowing is that it takes away the possibility of pretending!
Pearl Cleage
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What looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.
Pearl Cleage
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...no woman can love a weak man hard enough to make him strong.
Pearl Cleage
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Loneliness is random solitude is ritual.
Pearl Cleage
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old habits are hard to break, but not impossible!
Pearl Cleage
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Vera Stark is a fabulous force of nature.
Pearl Cleage
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Domestic violence is the front line of the war against women.
Pearl Cleage
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Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television solitude is herb tea and soft music.
Pearl Cleage
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Any time your life is at stake and you can't find even one woman to come forward and say, 'This is a good man,' your problem isn't what kind of woman THEY are. Your problem is what kind of men YOU are.
Pearl Cleage
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I think it's hard to make a living as a writer, but I think it's hard to work at McDonald's too.... I think the commitment is to get up everyday and say, I'm a writer, therefore what I'm supposed to do today is write. And to do that, and to do that and to do that.
Pearl Cleage
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I think all negotiations should take place at a round table and everybody should have to rotate counterclockwise once an hour so that even the perception of head of the table, or foot, are ritually obliterated.
Pearl Cleage
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Sometimes you have to show them what they want to see in order to get them to show you who they really are.
Pearl Cleage
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But it is the fear, not the writing that defeats me. Everything is not a masterpiece.
Pearl Cleage
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you can't know the meaning of the lesson until class is over!
Pearl Cleage
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As African-Americans, we often spend our time and energy blaming other people for the problems we see around us.
Pearl Cleage