Ralph Ellison Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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Every man must define his identity against his mother. If he does not, he just falls back into her and is swallowed up.
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What sets 'Some Nights' apart from anything we've ever done is the hip-hop influence. Not so much the actual sound of hip-hop, but more the vibrato and the artistry that comes with it. Right now, the artists that seem to be pushing to be the greatest artists and are trying to change the world are hip-hop artists.
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Greed is the lack of confidence of one's own ability to create.
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If you meet me, you might not get to know me. If you hear my music? You'll get to know me.
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Letters actually work. Even the top dog himself takes time every day to read 10 letters that are picked out by staff. I can tell you that every official that I've ever worked with will tell you about the letters they get and what they mean.
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It's my job to make sure that the people I'm gonna team up with for my music see everything that I'm about: Put all my cards on the table and don't make them guess.
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I won't do anything unless it's the absolute best.
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My family was very unorthodox. My mother was very eccentric and amazing. She always treated us like adults.
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I don't have any plans to pursue film acting. It's not my thing anymore, if it ever was. Yes, I do still act sometimes. But when I do, it's with people I know and trust, people who respect me as a person and appreciate what I have to offer.
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I can't stand my legs, for a start, and you rarely see me in skirts.
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My kid is a year and a half old, and I just want to roll around on the floor with him for a little bit and have a normal relationship with my family.
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You can keep the things of bronze and stone and give me one man to remember me just once a year.
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Medical costs are of concern, both in developing and developed countries.
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I got my first television at Stanford when I was 20, and I used to watch 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'. He played my father on 'Becker,' and he's still one of my heroes. Along with John Cleese, he's my favourite physical comedian.
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I love working and I love doing lots of things and a variety of things. It keeps your mind active... and you don't end up worrying about just the one thing. When I chew things over or analyze too much, that is when I can trip myself up.
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To sing is to bring to life; impossible if the words are mediocre, however good the music.
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Plastic surgery is like a big elephant sitting in the Hollywood living room.
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My parents were divorced when I was three, and both my father and mother moved back into the homes of their parents. I spent the school year with my mother, and the summers with my dad.
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Lead from the front.
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When you're onstage and you know you're bombing, that's very, very scary. Because you know you gotta keep going - you're bombing, but you can't stop. And you know that half an hour from now, you're still gonna be bombing. It takes a thick skin.
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The goal of the Creator is for each entity to make a conscious choice to again seek Oneness, out of our own free will - not because anyone else forced us to. If we are told what to do and what to believe, then we have learned nothing and will not make any progress. Perhaps the single most basic realization to make is that we live in a loving Universe. If we are all One Being, then it is foolish for us to hate anyone, as we are only hating ourselves.
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Nothing that rest on some contradictory basis shall succeed or last in the long run; all that involve (or imply...) a contradiction is fatally destined, early or late, to disintegrate and disappear.
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Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?