Ralph Ellison

Hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#covert #more #overt #preparation

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#continuing #controlled #defeat #face #humanity

When I discover who I am, I'll be free. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#discover #free #i #i am #who

Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#ancestors #choose #create #ones #others

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#ashamed #been #being #grandparents #having

The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#depends #extend #finally #human #human life

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#creates #ear #him #his #i

Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#difficult #fiction #good #made #real

If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to blind, imprison, and destroy. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#blind #destroy #free #imprison #make

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#back #constant #hovers #into #past