Ralph Ellison Quotes
For now I had begun to believe, despite all the talk of science around me, that there was a magic in spoken words.
Quotes to Explore
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Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to that which we can only conjecture to be without.
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When I was younger, I wanted to marry early, like at 23. Year by year, I found things I wanted to do, and the thought of marriage disappeared. But I don't want to marry too late. Around 31?
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This is the beauty of fiction. We may not like these characters, but we inhabit them.
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I really believe great actors, even with disease and age, can be great.
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I never thought of myself as a writer about religion until a religion came after me.
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Man's enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.
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Without a dog, you'll be without at least one creature who thinks you are the smartest, most decent and heroic human being on the planet.
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I am convinced that 100 years from now, people will talk about Elliott Carter as one of the most important figures in the second half of 20th-century music.
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Fallible characters are more interesting than superheroes in the end.
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I think of a piece of music as something that comes alive when it is being performed, and I feel that my role in the transmission of music is to be its best advocate at that moment.
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Americans are good at pursuing happiness. And the Americans who pursue happiness most diligently show that we're also good at running it down and killing it.
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I think a great starting point for a debate and discussion over a national consumption tax is, let's start with the Fair Tax, legislation that has been written up and, I think, signed up on by 80 congressmen and women.
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A man is as alive as he can communicate.
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Alfred Nobel was much concerned, as are we all, with the tangible benefits we hope for and expect from physiological and medical research, and the Faculty of the Caroline Institute has ever been alert to recognize practical benefits.
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I've had a few conversations with people who are horrified: who tell me my work is demeaning, is sexist, is negative.
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I have some property. We have a few acres, so I like working on it, whether it's cutting stuff down, cleaning stuff up, building steps, or working with concrete, you know, brickwork.
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He who molds the public sentiment... makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.
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Before my marriage, I was really wild, and I was very open about it. My wife knows about it. From the age of 19 to 30, I was this mad, wild person. I just wanted to have a good time, not get serious with anyone. I didn't allow relationships to happen, and I made it clear to whoever I was with.
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The only reason for mastering technique is to make sure the body does not prevent the soul from expressing itself.
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Oh, Alan Ryves," she said. "You're such a fantastic liar. You are the smoothest con man of them all.
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We believe in the principle that governments are properly established only when it is with the consent of the governed.
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Children from the age of five to ten should watch more television. Television depicts adults as rotten SOB's given to fistfights, gunplay, and other mayhem. Kids who believe this about grownups aren't likely to argue about bedtime.
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Corporations are not people. They shouldn't be funding. They shouldn't be funding campaigns at all.
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For now I had begun to believe, despite all the talk of science around me, that there was a magic in spoken words.
