Lucille Clifton Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I like snakes. I like hummingbirds. There's nothing on earth I don't like. Frogs. Salamanders. The bunnies, the giraffes, the hippopotamuses.
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I became interested in ocean issues in the 1980s when I couldn't take my daughters swimming because of pollution at our local beach. Twenty-five years later, I'm a board member of Oceana, the world's largest international organization dedicated to ocean conservation.
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Art is an invention of aesthetics, which in turn is an invention of philosophers... What we call art is a game.
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A lot of actors in my age bracket look at being still standing as pretty good.
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Biggie was a lyrical genius: he was a musical painter with words. As he rapped, you would see the picture come to life as you heard his story. You hear a lot of rappers rap; you hear a lot of singers sing, but you don't see the movie in your head the way you do when you hear Biggie rap.
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I really think it is possible to make a very nice living by writing and not worrying about anything else.
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We are so blessed to be here in America. We have freedom and opportunity unlike anywhere else in the world.
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I was a dancer first, which made me realize how much I loved performing.
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The more we learn about life, the less plausible is any evolutionary theory that relies on blind, undirected, piece-by-piece change.
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Our leaders must hear us speaking on behalf of our brothers and sisters in South Sudan. If the moral duty to save lives and work toward peace is not compelling enough to drive decision-makers, we must remind them that we care and will hold them accountable.
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It was a great thing to be a human being. It was something tremendous. Suddenly I'm conscious of a million sensations buzzing in me like bees in a hive. Gentlemen, it was a great thing.
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A stronger yuan could lead to greater Chinese asset accumulation in the U.S. and elsewhere.
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I taught a lot of art history, especially Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. But the painting classes came back. The nudes came back. Not so much the still lifes. So now our department is the worst department, partly because it has the worst facilities.
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You have your identity when you find out, not what you can keep your mind on, but what you can't keep your mind off.
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Youth doesn't need friends - it only needs crowds.
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Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.
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You have to keep listening and thinking and being critical and self-critical. Remember General Nivelle, in the First World War, at Verdun? He said he had the solution and then destroyed the French Army until it mutinied.
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Reality TV is easier to digest if it comes in small amounts.
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I just loved being divorced from my own wretchedness.
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It's always extremities when you are a young black male dealing with law enforcement.
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Let me say it again. I don't believe in black majority rule ever in Rhodesia-not in a thousand years. I repeat that I believe in blacks and whites working together. If one day it is white and the next day it is black, I believe we have failed and it will be a disaster for Rhodesia.
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I was a big fan of black gospel. As a kid, there were black groups I sang with from my teen years to my early 20s.
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I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.
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I am a black woman poet and I sound like one.
