Alice Walker

"A writer cannot develop much in isolation. Communication with other writers is essential."

"You must learn to live in the world as it is, not as you would wish it to be."

"Taking what someone else has written and trying to make it better is a form of disrespect."

"The forest is a place of testing, where all that is false falls away."

"I think we have to own the communities that we live in."

"The human spirit will not accept defeat."

"Let your life lightly dance with everything."

"Ignorance is not something to be proud of."

"The struggle is inner; it is against our own complacency."

"Every person I have ever known who has been happy has said that happiness is a choice."

"To acknowledge our ancestors means we are aware that we did not make ourselves, that the line stretches all the way back, perhaps to Africa; and that we understand that."

"The most solid joys are the least sudden; they grow and deepen with time."

"I'm really interested in the question of how we maintain our humanity in an increasingly dehumanizing world."

"The color purple is nature's way of being mysterious."

"Do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better, do better."

"No person is your friend who demands your silence."

"Tomorrow is the only day that has ever interested me."

"I think it is more important to be courageous than to be right."

"Anything we love can be saved."

"The soul's always right, and the body sometimes lies."

"If you come as though you would help, then why not do so in the simplest way?"

"We should spend less time naming things and more time enjoying them."

"Resist, as well as you can, the temptation to be bitter."

"The privilege of memory is seeing clearly."

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

"How sad it is that we give up on people who are just like us."

"To know ourselves to be free means to know ourselves to be responsible."

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

"Criticism, even when you try to ignore it, can hurt."