Micheaux Quotes & Sayings

Honest, intelligent criticism is an aid to the progress of an effort. — Oscar Micheaux

One of the greatest tasks of my life has been to teach the colored man he can be anything. — Oscar Micheaux

Evolution is so creative. That's how we got giraffes. — Kurt Vonnegut

Your self image is so powerful it unwittingly becomes your destiny. — Oscar Micheaux

What I like best is a good story with a moral. — Oscar Micheaux

There is no barrier to success which diligence and perseverance cannot hurdle. — Oscar Micheaux

My long experience with all classes of humanity had made me somewhat of a student of human nature. — Oscar Micheaux

The room was not a room to elevate the soul. Louis XIV, to pick a name at random, would not have liked it, would have found it not sunny enough, and insufficiently full of mirrors. He would have desired someone to pick up the socks, put the records away, and maybe burn the place down. Michelangelo would have been distressed by its proportions, which were neither lofty nor shaped by any noticeable inner harmony or symmetry, other than that all parts of the room were pretty much equally full of old coffee mugs, shoes and brimming ashtrays, most of which were sharing their tasks with each other. The walls were painted in almost precisely that shade of green which Rafaello Sanzio would have bitten off his own right hand at the wrist rather than use, and Hercules, on seeing the room, would probably have returned half an hour later armed with a navigable river. — Douglas Adams

Religion can be a good thing. Churches did black folks good after Reconstruction. It was the only place people like Nat Turner and Douglass could hold meetings to unite our people. But the white man wanted to teach black folks about the by and by in the sky. He wanted to take their minds off the things here, so maybe they wouldn't notice who was kicking them in the head. I admit, since joining my brother, I've changed some of my views. But you have to be smart about religion. You have to look closely at who's claiming it and how they're using it. — Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

If we are to believe certain oracles of crafty political views, a little revolt is desirable from the point of view of power. System: revolt strengthens those governments which it does not overthrow. — Victor Hugo

The dog won't bite if you beat Him with a bone — Tom Waits

Every race man and woman should cast aside their skepticism regarding the Negro's ability as a motion picture star. — Oscar Micheaux

I believe in God, and I love my brother. But I don't want any religion that will demand I lose my individuality. — Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

I have always tried ... to lay before the colored race a cross section of it's own life, to view the colored heart from close range. — Oscar Micheaux

Doubts can lead to deeper faith by forcing us to look more closely at what we believe. And why. — Irene Hannon

Moving pictures have become one of the greatest revitalizing forces in race adjustment. — Oscar Micheaux

I've never been to a black-tie thing in my life. I didn't even go to my prom. — Andrea Barrett

My father said to me when I was a child, 'Boy, set there until I come back.' That was his law and I had to obey him. He went off somewhere and forgot about me. I sat there all day waiting for my father and almost got a stroke from the sun.
I said to my son one time, 'Boy, set there until I come back.' You know what he said to me? 'For what?'
You're not going to cram down the throats of today's youth what got crammed down my father's. Young people want to know the facts now. — Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

We want to see our lives dramatized on the screen as we are living it, the same as other people, the world over. — Oscar Micheaux

Take me to 'nowhere' when distance belongs here,there,everywhere. — Munia Khan

It is only by presenting those portions of the race in my pictures, in the light and backround of their true state, that we can raise our people to greater heights. — Oscar Micheaux

The fact that you couldn't see Alfred Hitchcock's first film The Mountain Eagle, or that you couldn't see so many of F.W. Murnau's masterpieces, or that you couldn't see so many of Oscar Micheaux's really intriguing race melodramas, made with fierce independent spirit against all odds in '20s and '30s America. That stuff haunted me. They really did bring to life a sense of 20th Century history: cultural history, pop history, gender politics and race politics, socio economic history, all that stuff. It was bracing and instructive. — Guy Maddin

I keep thinking about Marcus Garvey and what he says about black people knowing themselves. It's clear that if the so-called Negro goes to school, he earns a degree for knowing the _white_ man, but not for knowing _himself_. All he learns about himself is slavery. Slavery is not a history of a man; it's a misfortune of a race of people. The black man needs to know the dignity of our race. The only way he will get this knowledge is to take it for himself. — Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

Higher consciousness means your self consciousness ceases to exist; you become the ocean of life and a part of the universe. — Debasish Mridha

Everybody keeps saying be satisfied with Jesus's love, and he will give us our daily bread. I keep waiting, but we never get any bread, so I have to go out and do things for myself. — Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

So I've got five books, a building, and a hundred bucks.
I'm starting my business tomorrow. — Vaunda Micheaux Nelson