“The world ain't ready for true black genius. In every nigger is a cup of African blood from kings and queens of divine nature, mathematicians, craftsmen, men and women of the land. I have known some sisters and brothers would scare Einstein back into East European caves with the magnificence of their minds. We are a people with a practical nature and great vision. We have built nations, discovered treasures for everyday use. Our people are a great race of people, and though the Europeans raped and plundered, we have kept inner riches. You got a cup of African blood and that mean something, means you got a responsibility to be proud of it and use your talents or suffer self-destruction.”
― Shay Youngblood, quote from Black Girl in Paris
“I was a woman and did not yet think of myself as a writer. I was a mapmaker.”
― Shay Youngblood, quote from Black Girl in Paris
“Before I left home I cut my hair close to my scalp so I could be a free woman with free thoughts, open to all possibilities. I was making a map of the world. In ancient times maps were made to help people find food, water, and the way back home. I needed a map to help me find love and language and since one didn't exist, I'd have to invent one, following the trails and signs left by other travelers. I didn't know what I wanted to be, but I knew I wanted to be the kind of woman who was bold, took chances, and had adventures. I wanted to travel around the world. It was my little-girl dream.”
― Shay Youngblood, quote from Black Girl in Paris
“Art is just as important as food, 'cause if your soul ain't nourished, you one empty mutherfucker.”
― Shay Youngblood, quote from Black Girl in Paris
“I discover that nothing is ever certain. A name, a birthday, an entire life can be invented, and that being so, can be changed.”
― Shay Youngblood, quote from Black Girl in Paris
“wanted that kind of life even though I was a woman and did not yet think of myself as a writer. I was a mapmaker.”
― Shay Youngblood, quote from Black Girl in Paris
Shay Youngblood
Born place: Georgia, The United States
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“...this was why men fell in love with strippers and escorts: it wasn't the licentiousness, the dissembling, their craven willingness to do whatever you wanted. It was the way they would, out of the blue, surprise you with the psychic ability to know what you needed.”
― Chris Bohjalian, quote from The Guest Room
“Time passed on; and as the eldest son did not come back, and no tidings were heard of him, the second son set out, and the same thing happened to him. He met the fox, who gave him the good advice: but when he came to the two inns, his eldest brother was standing at the window where the merrymaking was, and called to him to come in; and he could not withstand the temptation, but went in, and forgot the golden bird and his country in the same manner.”
― Jacob Grimm, quote from Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales
“I'm not ready to let the youthful part of myself go yet. If maturity means becoming a cynic, if you have to kill the part of yourself that is naive and romantic and idealistic - the part of you that you treasure most - to claim maturity, is it not better to die young but with your humanity intact?”
― quote from Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures): True Stories from a War Zone
“Greatness without models? Inconceivable. One could not be the thing itself - Reality. One must be satisfied with symbols. Make it the object of imitation to reach and release the high qualities. Make peace therefore with intermediacy and representations. Otherwise the individual must be the failure he now sees and knows himself to be.”
― Saul Bellow, quote from Mr. Sammler's Planet
“If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.”
― Jeff Wheeler, quote from The Hollow Crown
Green Angel
The Girl in the Stee...
Ilium
What's Left of Me
One Shot
Captain BloodBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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