Ntozake Shange quotes

I started writing because there's an absence of things I was familiar with or that I dreamed about. One of my senses of anger is related to this vacancy - a yearning I had as a teenager... and when I get ready to write, I think I'm trying to fill that. (Ntozake Shange)
I'm a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people's lives. View quote
Ntozake Shange
I write for young girls of color, for girls who don't even exist yet, so that there is something there for them when they arrive. I can only change how they live, not how they think. View quote
Ntozake Shange
If anything is life-changing, being the descendant of a slave is. View quote
Ntozake Shange
Multiculturalism isn't about culture, it's about power. View quote
Ntozake Shange
Where there is a woman there is magic. View quote
Ntozake Shange
my spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender. View quote
Ntozake Shange
i usedta live in the world really be in the world free & sweet talkin good mornin & thank-you & nice day uh huh i cant now i cant be nice to nobody nice is such a rip-off regular beauty & a smile in the street is just a set-up. View quote
Ntozake Shange
And this is for Colored girls who have considered suicide, but are moving to the ends of their own rainbows. View quote
Ntozake Shange
When I die, I will not be guilty of having left a generation of girls behind thinking that anyone can tend to their emotional health other than themselves. View quote
Ntozake Shange
...The characters in Sassafras did say awful things and trash one another, but there are people who do. In the time of the Sassafras narrative certain women's collectives existed that were very dramatic and people had a lot of lovers. We didn't even call it promiscuity. It was very different from the environment today. People today sit down and think about how they really want to be monogamous. It was not anybody's goal fifteen years ago. (Ntozake Shange)
...gender is cultural: we have menarche to deal with, virginity, menopause, pregnancy, childbirth; these things are unavoidable. And in some places they've been wise enough to have ritual and ceremony about significant events. It is unfortunate in our culture-meaning north American mainstream culture-that all this has been minimized to the point where little girls are even afraid to say that they are starting to menstruate when they should be very happy. Grown women are afraid to say that they are approaching the menopause, when that means that they have lived a whole successful life. They've lived so long that they can have this... View quote
Ntozake Shange
Hopefully, these characters bring us closer to a sense of self: honest and honored. Icons: Toussaint L'Ouverture to José Martí to lesser known heroes, Atahualpa and Denmark Vesey. We lace our visions with Celia Cruz and Aretha Franklin. View quote
Ntozake Shange
No. I'm not trying to go away from anybody. I don't go where my feelings get hurt. If you're going to be nice to me, I'll come. View quote
Ntozake Shange
I used to have boundaries up all the time, which is limiting. I never want to feel limited. If anything is life changing, being the descendant of a slave is. I went into therapy 10 years ago because I needed to work that out. I've gotten better. Everything about me is more fluid, much less rigid. I'm gonna do everything I can, feel everything I can, until it hurts. Then I'll stop. All they did was buy us–it's not an honor, it's just something that happened. Our gifts belong to us. View quote
Ntozake Shange