Alex Haley Quotes

20 Sourced Quotes

Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help.

Alex Haley
The family is our refuge and our springboard; nourished on it, we can advance to new horizons. In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.

Alex Haley
Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.

Alex Haley
Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia, West Africa, a manchild was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte.

Alex Haley
Out under the moon and the stars, alone with his son that eighth night, Omoro completed the naming ritual. Carrying little Kunta in his strong arms, he walked to the edge of the village, lifted his baby up with his face to the heavens, and said softly, "Fend kiling dorong leh warrata ka iteh tee. " (Behold—the only thing greater than yourself.)

Alex Haley
When you clench your fist, no one can put anything in your hand, nor can your hand pick up anything.

Alex Haley
When you start about family, about lineage and ancestry, you are talking about every person on earth. We all have it; it's a great equalizer. White people come up to me and tell me that Roots has started them thinking about their own families and where they came from. I think the book has touched a strong, subliminal pulse.

Alex Haley
Never completely encircle your enemy. Leave him some escape, for he will fight even more desperately if trapped.

Alex Haley
You don't spend twenty years of your life in the service and not have a warm, nostalgic feeling left in you … It's a small service, and there's a lot of esprit de corps.

Alex Haley
If I had been taking hashish, I could not have dreamed of this.

Alex Haley
In this country … we are young, brash and technologically oriented. We are all trying to build machines so that we can push a button and get things done a millisecond faster. But as a consequence, we are drawing away from one of the most priceless things we have — where we came from and how we got to be where we are. The young are drawing away from older people.

Alex Haley
In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it.

Alex Haley
On West African oral historians:
It is rightly said that when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground.

Alex Haley
No one can do for children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of children.

Alex Haley
In all of us there is a hunger, marrow-deep, to know our heritage- to know who we are and where we have come from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning. No matter what our attainments in life, there is still a vacuum, an emptiness, and the most disquieting loneliness.

Alex Haley
I look at my books the way parents look at their children. The fact that one becomes more successful than the other doesn't make them love the less successful one any less.

Alex Haley
I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I wasn't going to be one of those people who die wondering, What if? I would keep putting my dream to the test — even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the Shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there. If you can't live here, get back to YOUR roots and LEARN to live here!

Alex Haley
Have family reunions. There is something magic about the common sense of a blood bond. It's not less magic for black, white, brown or polka dot. The reunion gives a sense that the family cares about itself and is proud of itself. And there is the assumption that you, the family member, are obligated to reflect this pride and, if possible, add to it.

Alex Haley
Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.

Alex Haley
There's nothing I treasure more as a writer than being a Southerner.

Alex Haley