Ralph Ellison Quotes
The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch up with the time. In the street a siren howled.
Quotes to Explore
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At one point, I had a story accepted at the 'New Yorker,' which sent off weird bells in people when I told them - 'Oh,' they thought, 'now you are a writer' - where I really had been for the last 30-odd years.
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Weirdly, often the more I write, the more ideas I have.
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One day there were two out in the ninth, and I hit a pop fly so high that the fans got tired of waiting for it to come down. So they all went home and listened to it drop by turning on the radio.
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There is no one looking out for us. We are all alone.
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I can paint in jail.
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Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.
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Sometimes, I find that just the simplest, cleanest things that are intelligently performed are funniest to me.
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All the definitions people want to put on you in terms of what kind of writer you are come with hidden meanings. If you're writing science fiction, you're writing rocket ships. If you write dystopian fiction, it's inequity where The Man must be fought.
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An epic is not made by piecing together a set of heroic lays, adjusting their discrepancies and making them into a continuous narrative.
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I never personally complained; everybody else complained for me.
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I think I'm like a free spirit.
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I've never had any desire to be good. I don't like goodness particularly.
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It's always an honour doing anything for your country.
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I'm very tomboy, and I'm inspired by hip hop artists.
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A creationist can embarrass an evolutionist by asking for a definition of species.
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When 'Carmen' premiered in 1875, it was panned by the critics. It survived 45 performances. It was called a musical and moral outrage. After Bizet died, at age 37, 'Carmen' became wildly popular. If you believe in your creation, and the rest of the world is laughing or yelling 'Boo,' don't give up.
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I had a long conversation with Steve Carlton. He told me that on the days he pitched, he felt it was his responsibility to make everyone around him better, to lift his teammates. That's what I try to do.
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Coming from a smaller place always made things feel more personal, which is really what it's all about.
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I can score the basketball, but I think I can pass pretty well or I can make the correct pass. I'm not the type of guy who's just going to throw the ball inbounds to a guy who's wide open. I can make the right pass.
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I have been a woman for fifty years, and I've never yet been able to discover precisely what it is I am.
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I love when things don't go to plan.
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The names of common flowers change from decade to decade, so I spent a lot of time with old outdated dictionaries, with awful flower names like 'mouse-eared chickweed.'
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Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.
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The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch up with the time. In the street a siren howled.
