Ralph Ellison

"I am invisible, not because of any biochemical accident, but because of the peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact."

"Without individuals we have no life."

"All sickness is not unto death, neither is imprisonment."

"America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain."

"The mind that believes a thing to be true is by that belief enabled to become creative regarding matters in which it has such a belief; for all acts are firstborn as a thought."

"Responsibility rests upon the shoulders of individuals."

"Being American is about the embrace of cultural pluralism."

"Perhaps that's what life is... a wink of the eye and winking is done."

"If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will you have something that I can say isOf, By, and For the people."

"Art by Americans, about Americans, and especially art by Black Americans, was very much acceptable."

"I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain."

"Let man keep his many versions of the truth; there is but one truth in the end."

"It goes a long way back, some people say."

"The mind that believes a thing to be true is enabled by that belief to become creative."

"And my task is to awaken and make aware... to show the invisibility of invisibility."

"I would advise you to put up with injustices without losing your temper."

"Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"

"I'm not ashamed of my past because it made me all that I am today."

"The tendency to speak of the Negro in terms of social organization rather than as individuals is understandable."

"Life is to be lived, not controlled."

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

"Perhaps everyone enjoys hearing admitted in words what he has always felt, though perhaps not consciously, when he thought of the evil in men."

"The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter the way people see the world, you change the world."

"You are what you see."

"Injustice wears ever the same harsh face wherever it shows itself."

"Without the possibility of change in things, there is no need for hope."

"Our task is always to make the invisible visible."

"I learned to love without going backward."

"I am nobody but myself."

"There is a kind of violence to his act which an outsider finds hard to understand."