Alice Walker - Quodid

About

Picture of Alice Walker

Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel The Color Purple. Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry.

Quotes from Alice Walker

Activism is my rent for living on this planet.

—Alice Walker

activism responsibility

Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.

—Alice Walker

I had assumed that the earth, the spirit of the earth, noticed exceptions—those who wantonly damage it and those who do not. But the earth is wise. It has given itself into the keeping of all, and all are therefore accountable.

—Alice Walker

In search of my mother's garden, I found my own.

—Alice Walker

In the Baemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman, and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person… has done in his lifetime. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths, and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. The tribal ceremony often lasts several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe.

—Alice Walker

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

—Alice Walker

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers' names.

—Alice Walker

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.… People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

—Alice Walker

life God beauty care

To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps, to God; or to Gods. We remember them because it is an easy thing to forget: that we are not the first to suffer, rebel, fight, love, and die. The grace with which we embrace life, in spite of the pain, the sorrows, is always a measure of what has gone before.

—Alice Walker

It has become a common feeling, I believe, as we have watched our heroes falling over the years, that our own small stone of activism, which might not seem to measure up to the rugged boulders of heroism we have so admired, is a paltry offering toward the building of an edifice of hope. Many who believe this choose to withhold their offerings out of shame. This is the tragedy of the world. For we can do nothing substantial toward changing our course on the planet, a destructive one, without rousing ourselves, individual by individual, and bringing our small, imperfect stones to the pile.

—Alice Walker

hope heroism tragedy shame heroes the world

Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

—Alice Walker

The animals of the planet are in desperate peril… Without free animal life I believe we will lose the spiritual equivalent of oxygen.

—Alice Walker

I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.

—Alice Walker