Ralph Ellison Quotes
The work of art is, after all, an act of faith in our ability to communicate symbolically.
Quotes to Explore
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Only time, education and plenty of good schooling will make anti-segregation work.
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I always watch the work I do.
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I promised my mom that if, after a year of putting 150 percent into my career it didn't work out, I would go back to school. I never did go back.
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It's good to keep in mind that prominence is always a mix of hard work, eloquence in your practice, good timing and fortuitous social relations. Everything can't be personalized.
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If I were to continue to work in an established mode, it stands to reason the work would be limited by this - that it would never surpass the prior work in quality.
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Non-violence is the article of faith.
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Imagine if someone like John Lennon or Bob Marley, Sid Vicious, Picasso, whomever, were doing their work, and some corporation, some CEO, some branding entity was saying to you, 'Well, you can do that, but you've got to remove this aspect of your work.' There would no longer be that purity anymore.
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Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.
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Art is always an exaggeration in some sense; in color, in form, even in theme, etc... but it has always been this way. It is the same with the nature of some works by Giotto or Massacio, or the color of life as expressed by Van Gogh.
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Sexual harassment at work... is it a problem for the self-employed?
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I realise how important it is to use the time I have. I respect people who want to do that by watching television. I happen to want to read books. But I know I can't read all the books or watch all the movies in one lifetime.
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I need to work to feel well.
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But 18 years after the passage of the Civil Liberties Act, there still remains unfinished work to completely rectify and close this regrettable chapter in our Nation's history.
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I was a pretty pretentious kid. I was always making art.
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Human connection is the way things work. It's like a patronage system. You know somebody, and he knows somebody, and he knows somebody, and he knows the district governor, and it's okay.
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It's good to make your own things because you can have control of your own art.
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I focus on projects I am passionate about and only work with people I respect. Without these supportive teams, partners and clients, I could never work on so many things. I am fortunate that they see the value in the multiplicity of my work and how it all comes together in a kind of virtuous cycle.
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I've wanted to be a writer since I was a boy, though it seemed an unlikely outcome since I showed no real talent. But I persevered and eventually found my own row to hoe. Ignorance of other writers' work keeps me from discouragement and I am less well-read than the average bus driver.
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I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art: I altered the minds of men, and the colour of things: I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all things in a phrase, all existence in an epigram: whatever I touched I made beautiful.
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Sleep is probably the most important biological function. If you don't get enough sleep, you can get psychiatric illnesses and all types of different illnesses.
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I'm not very cool. I have a really hard time meeting people and stuff.
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Growing up as a kid, there were so many people that I disliked, I daydreamed about hurting them. Hell just seemed like a good place for all of them to go. Unfortunately, I don't believe it exists.
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I've never been around pets. I didn't have pets as a child.
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The work of art is, after all, an act of faith in our ability to communicate symbolically.
