Quotes from the work of Audre Lorde

• "And I would be the moon spoken over your beckoning flesh, breaking against reservations, beaching thought, my hands at your high tide, over and under inside you, and the passing of hungers, attended...forgotten."
  by Audre Lorde (1934-92)




• "When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid"
  - Audre Lorde (1934-92)




• "Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever Only, nothing is eternal"
  - Audre Lorde (1934-92)

• "I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect."--Audre Lorde




• "I am who I am, doing what I came to do, acting upon you like a drug or chisel or remind you of your me-ness as I discover you in myself." Audre Lorde




• it is not our differences that divide us. it is our inability to recognize, accept & celebrate those differences. -Audre Lorde




• "We must be the change we wish to see in the world." --Audre Lorde




• We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other. -Audre Lorde, "Eye to Eye"




• Your Silence Will Not Protect You..." Audre Lorde




• "…and if my eyes reveal a stanchion of conflicting rebellions I learned from you to define myself through your denials." Audre Lorde




• "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." --Audre Lorde




• "And there is, for me, no difference between writing a good poem & moving into sunlight against the body of a womyn I love" Audre Lorde




• "Mother, loosen my tongue or adorn me with a lighter burden." -Audre Lorde




• "A core of conversations we never had/lie in the distance between your wants and mine/.../and in case you have ever tried to reach me/and I could not hear you/these words are in place/of the dead air/still between us" -- Audre Lorde




• The love expressed between women is particular and powerful because we have had to love in order to live; love has been our survival.--Audre Lorde




• "Without community, there is no liberation," Audre Lorde




• "We fear the visibility without which we can not truly live." ~ Audre Lorde




• "...and that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength." Audre Lorde




• "some women wait for themselves around the next corner and call the empty spot peace but the opposite of living is only not living and the stars do not care" -Audre Lorde




• " the task ahead of us is never so great as the power behind us" --"in my time of weakness, it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid" Audre Lorde




• "I am a bleak heroism of words that refuses to be buried alive with the liars." Audre Lorde




• If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive ~ Audre Lorde




• "we tend to think of the erotic as an easy, tantalizing sexual arousal. I speak of the erotic as the deepest life force, a force which moves us toward living in a fundamental way"-Audre Lorde




• "The erotic is a measure between our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings." -- Audre Lorde




• I do not want to be tolerated nor misnamed. I want to be recognized. Audre Lorde




• "I have come to learn that that which is most important to me must be spoken."--Audre Lorde;




• "Out of my flesh that hungers/ and my mouth that knows/ comes the shape I am seeking/ for reason." Audre Lorde




• "I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect."--Audre Lorde




• "...within the war we are all waging with the forces of death, subtle and otherwise, conscious or not - I am not only a casualty, I am also a warrior." - Audre Lorde




• "For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us." Audre Lorde




• "Once we recognize what it is we are feeling, once we recognize we can feel deeply, love deeply, can feel joy, then we will demand that all parts of our lives produce that kind of joy." -- Audre Lorde




• ... "women who want without needing are expensive and sometimes wasteful, but women who need without wanting are dangerous - they suck you in and pretend not to notice." ~ Audre Lorde




• "Every woman I have ever known has made a lasting impression on my soul." -Audre Lorde



• My anger has meant pain to me but it has also meant survival, and before I give it up I'm going to be sure that there is something at least as powerful to replace it on the road to clarity." Audre Lorde

When I originally added this page to my site, it was at a time that I really didn't see much about Audre Lorde on the internet. I love her work so much and it was such a huge part of my personal growth. If you do not know her work, I highly recommend you check out any of her books. There are even a few movies out now on her life and work... What an amazing and powerful spirit! The work I do is an example of my "Transformation of Silence..." in this case, into MUSIC and action. My life would be very different without her work... - Nedra