African American Authors Quotes & Sayings

Have you come to terms with what's going to happen between us? — N.D. Jones

NEVER GO TO SLEEP KNOWING THE SAME THING YOU KNEW THE NIGHT BEFORE! — Qwana M. BabyGirl Reynolds-Frasier

Any woman with kinky textured hair - can wear it, love it and manage it. She only needs the right tools, inspiration and motivation. — Monica Millner

I had never read a book written by an African-American. I didn't know that black people could write books. I didn't know that blacks had done any great things. I was always conscious of my inferiority and I always remembered my place - until the Civil Rights Movement came to the town where I was born and grew up. — Endesha Ida Mae Holland

You will never finish your novels if you don't take it one word at a time — Terrence LeRoy Baker

Big Ma didn't need to say any more and she didn't. T.J. was far from her favorite person and it was quite obvious that Stacey and I owed our good fortune entirely to T.J.'s obnoxious personality. — Mildred D. Taylor

If you're colored, you get the short end of the stick. If you're a woman, you get the short end of the stick. So what do we get for being colored and women? — Sherri L. Smith

Do you feel it? The connection between us? The pull? The power of our link? — N.D. Jones

You can take away my anger, my fear, my fury, even my pain, but I could never live with myself if I'm not the one to bring that demon to justice. You're all the family I have left, Serwa, and I pledged myself to you when I was a man-child of twenty-one years. Now, as a man of centuries, that responsibility hasn't changed. If anything, it's only gotten stronger. — N.D. Jones

Let us banish fear. We have been in this mental state for three centuries. I am a radical. I am ready to act, if I can find brave men to help me. — Carter G. Woodson

It was hard to love a woman that always made you feel so wishful. — Zora Neale Hurston

Once upon a time, we were Africans involved in a unique lexicon of beliefs, lore, stories, and customs that were designed to help integrate us into an environment filled with plants, animals, elements, and a complex array of spirits. With the advent of slavery, the physical bond with the motherland was broken, but like seeds lifted from a ripe plant by wind, we found fertile ground in distant lands elsewhere. — Stephanie Rose Bird

George, I know you're tired. But President Lincoln, he didn't free us to be lazy and no good. He freed us to work hard and improve ourselves.-George's Grandmother. — George Dawson

When their voices didn't reach my ears,
I rebelled against my own skin
too young to realize that without their
stories I would starve. — Kiana Davis

Easy, Sage, you have no idea. I just agreed to betray my marriage vows, my husband, and my beating heart. — N.D. Jones

PEOPLE DIE
THEIR ENERGY DON'T! — Qwana M. BabyGirl Reynolds-Frasier

You're an incredible woman, Lela. I would battle a thousand Terrademons to reach your heart. But I cannot challenge or defeat an enemy that's already dead. I cannot fight for a heart that doesn't want to be won. — N.D. Jones

DON'T BE SO PREPARED FOR THE BATTLE,
TO THE POINT YOU FIND YOURSELF UNPREPARED FOR THE VICTORY!

WHEN YOU TRULY BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, YOU PREPARE FOR IT ALL! — Qwana M. BabyGirl Reynolds-Frasier

Lucas, I never wanted children. I just want to be CEO. I want money, power, and on occasion, sex — Norian F. Love

I took one look at him, my mouth started watering and my panties moistened with thick fluid as if he had touched my sensation and made me instantaneously combust. — Siva D.

She was turned on by him - his scent, his smile; he was the manifestation of seduction. Under normal circumstances, she'd be tempted, but might have had enough willpower to resist him. These weren't normal circumstances, however. Tonight, she was certain she wanted him in her bedroom. — Norian F. Love

He was a glance from God. — Zora Neale Hurston

WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE WAYS OF YOUR ANCESTORS YOU WILL NEVER BE LOST.

LET YOUR ANCESTORS BE YOUR GUIDING LIGHT. — Qwana M. BabyGirl Reynolds-Frasier

He was a romantic, a poet, a lover, a friend, and a freak. Someone to be turned on by and disgusted with in the same breath. He filled her with emotion. Whether it was the sensation of an orgasm or the comfort of someone who listen to her, this experience indulged all her pleasurable senses with little to no conflict. It was heaven, it was ecstasy, but it wasn't real. — Norian F. Love

If I weren't so screwed up, I would've sold my soul a long time ago for a handsome man who made me feel pretty or who could at least treat me to a Millionaire's Martini. Instead I lingered over a watered down Sparkling Apple and felt sorry about what I was about to do to the blue-eyed bartender standing in front of me. Although I shouldn't, after all, I am a bail recovery agent. It's my job to get my skip, no matter the cost.If I weren't so screwed up, I would've sold my soul a long time ago for a handsome man who made me feel pretty or who could at least treat me to a Millionaire's Martini. Instead I lingered over a watered down Sparkling Apple and felt sorry about what I was about to do to the blue-eyed bartender standing in front of me. Although I shouldn't, after all, I am a bail recovery agent. It's my job to get my skip, no matter the cost. Yet, I had been wondering lately. What was this job costing me? Yet, I had been wondering lately. What was this job costing me? — Miranda Parker

Trust her heart, Assefa, and believe in yourself. No matter the challenge, no matter the foe, be brave, be wise, be the undefeated Mngwa of lore. — N.D. Jones

It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color-prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for the white South to reply that their social condition is the main cause of prejudice. They both act as reciprocal cause and effect, and a change in neither alone will bring the desired effect. Both must change, or neither can improve to any great extent."(p.88) ... "Only by a union of intelligence and sympathy across the color-line in this critical period of the Republic shall justice and right triumph, — W.E.B. Du Bois

My teeth ache, my gums hurt, and my cat is tearing me apart, wanting you in every way imaginable. Your body. Your magic. Your fire spirit. Your blood. — N.D. Jones

For poetry and I are one
To separate is to decapitate
For my poetry is forever. — Kerry D. Brackett

I had not expected the gentle, tentative surge of gratitude I began to feel...for St. Paul's School, the spring, and the early morning. I needed the morning light and the warbling birds. I needed to find a way to live in this place for a moment and get the good of it. I had tried to hold myself apart, and the aloneness proved more terrible than what I had tried to escape. — Lorene Cary

This book is dedicated to every woman who has ever felt self-conscious about her size. Outer beauty comes in all sizes, shapes, heights, ages, and colors. And inner beauty will always shine through, no matter what the packaging. — Raynetta Manees

Most of the more celebrated names among African-American authors, poets, and artists are known to the world because of their association with specific cultural arts movements. — Aberjhani

From The Corner To The Corner Office - It's Not Just A Book, It's A Lifestyle! — James A. Barlow

The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. Nevertheless, men strive to know. — W.E.B. Du Bois

His voice took on a thick silkiness to it that made her want to press her body closer. "Octavia, you are welcome to touch any part of my body you wish. Just be careful of what you start. Once I lay claim to something, or someone, I will not part with it or them willingly." - Kade Egon — Sunshine Taylor Reddick

If I'm moving too fast or coming on too hard... — N.D. Jones

There is something immensely scary about putting yourself out there for people to love or hate you, fan or pan you, review or screw you. — L.V. Lewis

Love Warriors embrace the battlefield at dawn, blaze the banner of hope til dusk then silently splash the waters of joy through our dreams at night. — Cathie Wright-Lewis

Teachers and librarians can be the most effective advocates for diversifying children's and young adult books. When I speak to publishers, they're going to expect me to say that I would love to see more books by Native American authors and African-American authors and Arab-American authors. But when a teacher or librarian says this to publishers, it can have a profound effect. — Pat Mora

Everything in life has its price, and often the heaviest prices we pay are not in terms of money. — Raynetta Manees

Don't you know sugar is brown first? White folks couldn't stand the fact that something so sweet shared the same color as the people who cut the cane, slopped the hogs and picked the cotton. So they bleached it to resemble them, and now they done gone and fooled everybody. You included. — Bernice L. McFadden

Call them from their houses, and teach them to dream. — Jean Toomer

On Slavery: The saddest slap in the face is we have NO monument, no real statues or memorials, no special day of Atonement or Remembrance (NOT ONE), no thanks for 400+ years of free labor, forced servitude across the Trans-Atlantic, ass beatings, buying ourselves and families out of slavery, rape and plunder ... but everyone else has monuments, special museums, and even movies. This is what America thinks of black people, so-called black president and all, who has been largely silent on this subject ... we'll even celebrate Leprechauns, Easter Bunnies, and Secretary's Day before we acknowledge our history. — Brandi L. Bates

Well, writing was what I wanted to do, it was always what I wanted to do. I had novels to write so I wrote them. — Octavia E. Butler

I loved going to the library. It was the first time I ever saw Black newspapers and magazines like JET, Ebony, the Baltimore Afro-American, or the Chicago Defender. And I'll never forget my librarian. — John Lewis

The objective of stereotypes is not to reflect or represent a reality but to function as a disguise, or mystification, of objective social relations. — Hazel V. Carby