I had crossed de line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but dere was no one to welcome me to de land of freedom. I... was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in de old cabin quarter, wid de ole folks, and my brudders and sisters. But to dis solemn resolution I came; I was free, and dey should be free also; I would make a home for dem in de North, and de Lord helping me, I would bring dem all dere.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A poet can read. A poet can write. A poet is African in Africa, or Irish in Ireland, or French on the left bank of Paris, or white... in Wisconsin. A poet writes in her own language. A poet writes of her own people, her own history, her own vision, her own room, her own house where she sits at her own table quietly placing one word after another word until she builds a line and a movement and an image and a meaning that somersaults all of these into the singing, the absolutely individual voice of the poet: at liberty. A poet is somebody free. A poet is someone at home. How should there be Black poets in America?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Autonomy means women defining themselves and the values by which they will live, and beginning to think of institutional arrangeme...nts which will order their environment in line with their needs.... Autonomy means moving out from a world in which one is born to marginality, to a past without meaning, and a future determined by others--into a world in which one acts and chooses, aware of a meaningful past and free to shape one's future.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It might seem desirable to attempt a definition of play--not a dictionary definition but one that takes into account the psycholog...ical principles involved. We might define it as pleasurable activity in which the means is more important than the ostensible end. This clearly distinguishes it from work, and is in line with our hypothesis that, like work, play is an end in itself, an opportunity for the discharge of aggressive energy in not only painless but actually pleasurable forms, energy which would otherwise be repressed at a definite psychological expense or else expressed in harmful ways. Play acts out timelessly in pantomime, symbol, and gesture the unfulfillable aggressive and erotic wishes of the players. I say unfulfillable, although the fantasies of some play are actually realized later, as, for example, in the little girl's play with her doll.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The modern picture of The Artist began to form: The poor, but free spirit, plebeian but aspiring only to be classless, to cut hims...elf forever free from the bonds of the greedy bourgeoisie, to be whatever the fat burghers feared most, to cross the line wherever they drew it, to look at the world in a way they couldn't see, to be high, live low, stay young forever--in short, to be the bohemian.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Opinions are not to be learned by rote, like the letters of an alphabet, or the words of a dictionary. They are conclusions to be ...formed, and formed by each individual in the sacred and free citadel of the mind, and there enshrined beyond the arm of law to reach, or force to shake; ay! and beyond the right of impertinent curiosity to violate, or presumptuous arrogance to threaten.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The essential is to go on squirming forever at the end of the line, as long as there are waters and banks and ravening in heaven a... sporting God to plague his creature, per pro his chosen shits.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If you have wit, use it to please, and not to hurt; you may shine, like the sun in the temperature zones, without scorching. Here ...it is wished for; under the Line it is dreaded.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Billie Holiday's burned voice had as many shadows as lights,... a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano, the gardenia her signature under that ruined face. ... If you can't be free, be a mystery.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »