Ralph Ellison
Born: 02-28-1914
Ralph Ellison was an influential American writer best known for his seminal novel, "Invisible Man," which explores themes of identity and race in America. Born in 1913 in Oklahoma City, Ellison was also an accomplished essayist and scholar. His work has left a lasting impact on American literature, earning him numerous accolades including the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison's insightful exploration of social issues continues to resonate with readers today.
Book summaries for books written by Ralph Ellison
Quotes
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism.
To live with what you are, to be what you are, to know it and accept it and become it – that is a joy beyond measure.
You do not deal with a man who has lost all that he loves and still expect his love to be confined to one spot.
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed.
You can only be free when you realize you belong no place – you belong every place – no place at all.
Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.
People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all.
It's strange how the thought of certain people can make you feel at home wherever you are.
I don't want my pain erased, but you to understand it.
The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.