Ralph Ellison Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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We are not accepting that countries just get to sit back and let the United States meet threats that are going to roost in their worlds just as easily as they are in ours.
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I love playing live, I don't like studios all that much. I need the reaction of the audience.
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You turn up on set, and somebody who has come out of Oxford, has done a BBC course, is telling you how to act. You think, 'Do me a favour. Go and make a coffee.'
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I'm not looking to shock anyone.
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You have to find out how to become the character.
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There was a time I desperately needed for the world to know that I was no category guy. My whole goal in life was to reach that certain success where people will say, 'Hey, that guy can do anything. He's the Evel Knievel of music. He's jumping over 15 buses!'
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The death of my kid made me a stronger person. There's no end to what I'm willing to do.
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Do you know why dogs are man's best friend? It's because they're not in politics.
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Millions of us, myself included, go back generations in this country, with ancestors who put in the painstaking work to become citizens. So we don't like the notion that anyone might get a free pass to American citizenship.
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Well, after the divorce, I went home and turned all the lights on!
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It's easy to get published once you have written a really good book and the hard part, 99 percent of what you need to worry about, is really finishing it.
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I am the father of twin sons that were born in Philadelphia at Pennsylvania Hospital in 1983. They were 13 weeks premature. Gerry weighed 1 pound 14 ounces, and Zachary 1 pound 11 ounces. They were the first male twins to ever survive at Pennsylvania Hospital.
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When you make a movie, it's up to so many things and so many people.
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Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches.
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The non-utility of my kitchen could be transformed into its utility for art. To do a show there would mix art and life, naturally.
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It's not like I go out there to be a sex symbol. I mean, it's nice of course - but embarrassing.
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I'm a darned good listener.
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I would love to play a superhero. I wish I could be in 'The Avengers,' kicking butt.
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Feeling compassion for ourselves in no way releases us from responsibility for our actions. Rather, it releases us from the self-hatred that prevents us from responding to our life with clarity and balance.
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Women have to make a living. We don't live in a wealthy world where we even have a choice. We're losing our choice of whether or not we need to work. If we want to work, we obviously should work and have that choice, but a lot of women can't even get to the word "want." They need to work. And it's great to see women who needed to work and found a way to become a firefighter or a steel worker. That, to me, is very exciting.
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I've got some gift for languages. You follow your gift. But Latin's not easy.
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The new leader is a facilitator, not an order giver.
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I write poetry because I can’t disobey the impulse; it would be like blocking a spring that surges up in my throat. For a long time I’ve been the servant of the song that comes, that appears and can’t be buried away. How to seal myself up now?…It no longer matters to me who receives what I submit. What I carry out is, in that respect, greater and deeper than I, I am merely the channel.
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...the world is possibility if only you'll discover it.
