Hansberry V Quotes & Sayings

American straightforwardness is almost as disarming as Americans invariably think it is. — Lorraine Hansberry

I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love. — Lorraine Hansberry

It's dangerous, son."
"What's dangerous?"
"When a man goes outside his house to look for peace. — Lorraine Hansberry

Ah, I like the look of packing crates! A household in preparation for a journey! ... Something full of the flow of life, do you understand? Movement, progress ... — Lorraine Hansberry

You aimin' to go the full circle now? How long before I have to come get you up from the sidewalks? You got hurt and pain in you? Well, I used to know a man who knew how to live with his pain and make his hurt work for him. Your daddy died with dignity; there wasn't no bum in him. And he known some hurts in this life you ain't never even heard of! — Lorraine Hansberry

Never be afraid to sit awhile and think. — Lorraine Hansberry

In my mother's house there is still God."
Act 1, Scene 1 ~ A Raisin in the Sun — Lorraine Hansberry

I think that the human race does command its own destiny and that that destiny can eventually embrace the stars. — Lorraine Hansberry

Mama
Mama
I want so many things ... I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy ... — Lorraine Hansberry

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy NOT to care ... the WHY of why we are here is an intrigue for adolescents; the HOW is what must command the living. Which is why I have lately become an insurgent again. — Lorraine Hansberry

Though it be a thrilling and marvellous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so - doubly dynamic - to be young, gifted and black. — Lorraine Hansberry

DAMN MY EGGS! DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS! -Wilson — Lorraine Hansberry

Sometimes, I can see the future stretched out in front of me - just as plain as day. The future hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me. — Lorraine Hansberry

Do I remain a revolutionary? Intellectually
without a doubt. But am I prepared to give my body to the struggle or even my comforts? This is what I puzzle about. — Lorraine Hansberry

The grim possibility is that she who 'hides her brains' will, more than likely, end up with a mate who is only equal to a woman with 'hidden brains' or none at all. — Lorraine Hansberry

[I am] A fool who believes that death is waste and love is sweet and that the earth turns and men change every day and that rivers run and that people wanna be better than they are and that flowers smell good and that I hurt terribly today, and that hurt is desperation and desperation is - energy and energy can move things... — Lorraine Hansberry

A status not freely chosen or entered into by an individual or a group is necessarily one of oppression and the oppressed are by their nature (i.e., oppressed) forever in ferment and agitation against their condition and what they understand to be their oppressors. If not by overt rebellion or revolution, then in the thousand and one ways they will devise with and without consciousness to alter their condition — Lorraine Hansberry

Something always told me I wasn't no rich white woman. — Lorraine Hansberry

Ball points belong to their age. They make everyone write alike. — Lorraine Hansberry

It is difficult for the American mind to adjust to the realization that the Rhetts and the Scarletts were as much monsters as the keepers of Buchenwald-they just dressed more attractively. — Lorraine Hansberry

This is one of the glories of man, the inventiveness of the human mind and the human spirit: whenever life doesn't seem to give an answer, we create one. — Lorraine Hansberry

It isn't a circle
it is simply a long line
as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end
we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd by those who see the changes
who dream, who will not give up
are called idealists ... and those who see only the circle we call them the "realists"! — Lorraine Hansberry

I wish to live beacause life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and
I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations and generations. — Lorraine Hansberry

I want to fly! I want to touch the sun!"
"Finish your eggs first. — Lorraine Hansberry

Obviously the most oppressed of any oppressed group will be its women — Lorraine Hansberry

One cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know and read of the miseries which affect the world. — Lorraine Hansberry

Beneatha: Love him? There is nothing left to love.
Mama: There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. (Looking at her) Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him: what he been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning - because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so! when you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is. — Lorraine Hansberry

[T]here is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture
in front of us
our own little mirage that we think is the future. — Lorraine Hansberry

Our Southside is a place apart: each piece of our living is a protest. — Lorraine Hansberry

I started with Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee and Lou Gossett, Jr. and the rest of the wonderful cast of 'A Raisin In The Sun.' We were directed by the great Lloyd Richards. The play was written by the wonderful Lorraine Hansberry, and it was produced by Phil Rose. That's where my start was, so ... not a bad way to start. — Glynn Turman