Quotes from Alice Walker

She was someone who could not be rushed. This seems a small thing. But it is actually a very amazing quality, a very ancient one. She did everything at just the same pace as before, she could tell the time of day or night by the moisture in the atmosphere, and she went about her business as if she would live forever, and forever was very, very long. That is the kind of mujer my mama was. When you look at me you see her, but I have lost 'forever'; therefore I sometimes hurry.

You must learn to love only that which cannot be stolen

There is for human beings no greater hell to fear than the one on earth.

Why us always have family reunion on July 4th, say Henrietta, mouth poke out, full of complaint. It so hot. White people busy celebrating they independence from England July 4th, say Harpo, so most black folks don't have to work. Us can spend the day celebrating each other.

there could be no happy community in which there was one unhappy child.

There's no return from this, no way we will ever come back together again. She tried to accept this clarity as a gift.

though we have all encountered our share of grief and troubles, we can still hold the line of beauty, form, and beat — no small accomplishment in a world as challenging as this one. Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is the proof.

The world is changing, I said. It is no longer a world just for boys and men.

And I try to teach my heart not to want nothing it can't have.

I also began to understand how alone woman is, because of her body.

the most common way people give up there power is by thinking they don't have any

I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time.

Just cause I love her don't take away none of her rights… Who am I to tell her who to love? My job just to love her good and true myself.

Celie, tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.

Time moves slowly, but passes quickly

They be marching hand in hand, like going to war.

Be what they do not want: Be thoughtful. Be skilled at loving. Be of good heart. Be of the world tribe.

How do we make new and restorative of soul the old pain? How do we learn to carry with grace and humor all that has happened to us?

Our mothers taught us that in the old, old days, when they were their grandmothers and their grandmothers were old—for we are our grandmothers, you understand, only with lots of new and different things added

it was this inner peace that attracted peace around her.

Who is it that most needs forgiving? Who is it that feels so much pain? Who is it that would really like to fly Far far away? Who is that can return Free and gentle Like the rain? It is the Self, my love, My adored one, It is the Self That even now It is running for its Life Running to its life Into the arms Of death.

I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found it.

remember one time you said your life made you feel so ashamed you couldn't even talk about it to God, you had to write it, bad as you thought your writing was. Well, now I know what you meant. And whether God will read letters or no, I know you will go on writing them; which is guidance enough for me. Anyway, when I don't write to you I feel as bad as I do when I don't pray, locked up in myself and choking on my own heart. I am so lonely, Celie.

Health is our culture; anything that interferes with it is our bondage.