bell hooks

Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books. ”

I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance. ”

I have created a life style that supports contemplation, service to words. ”

I think life experiences are different for people who know what they want as children. ”

I feel that my environment reflects my belief in the grace and art and elegance of living simply. ”

No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women... When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women. ”

In this culture, the phrase 'black woman' is not synonymous with 'tender,' or 'gentle.' It's as if those words couldn't possibly speak to the reality of black females. ”

The working-class black Southern Christian culture I come from still nurtures me, and I mean directly, daily. ”

Yesterday I was thinking about the whole idea of genius and creative people, and the notion that if you create some magical art, somehow that exempts you from having to pay attention to the small things. ”

All over the world, young males and females, schooled in the art of patriarchal thinking, are building an identity on a foundation that sees the will to do violence as the essential way to assert being. ”