Audre Lorde (born Audrey Geraldine Lorde, February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was a Caribbean-American writer and civil rights activist.
“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
“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.”
“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.”
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”
“Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication; it becomes a device to protect ignorance and the continuation of things the way they are, the ultimate protection for changelessness.”
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
“Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.”
“But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.”
“I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.”
“The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. ”
“We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.”
“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.”






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