Lorraine Hansberry - A Raisin in the Sun (1959)

13 Sourced Quotes

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There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning — because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.

Lorraine Hansberry
Children see things very well sometimes — and idealists even better.

Lorraine Hansberry
I look at you and I see the final triumph of stupidity in the world!

Lorraine Hansberry
What you ain't never understood is that I ain't got nothing, don't own nothing, ain't never really wanted nothing that wasn't for you. There ain't nothing as precious to me...There ain't nothing worth holding on to, money, dreams, nothing else—

Lorraine Hansberry
Sometimes it's like I can see the future stretched out in front of me — just as plain as day. Hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me — a big, looming blank space — full of nothing. Just waiting for me. But it don't have to be.

Lorraine Hansberry
Big Walter used to say, he'd get right wet in the eyes sometimes, lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes and say, 'Seem like God didn't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams - but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while.'

Lorraine Hansberry
I'm just tired of hearing about God all the time. What has He got to do with anything?... I'm not going to be immoral or commit crimes because I don't believe. I don't even think about that. I just get so tired of Him getting the credit for things the human race achieves through its own effort. Now, there simply is no God. There's only man. And it's he who makes miracles.

Lorraine Hansberry
Ah, I like the look of packing crates! A household in preparation for a journey!... Something full of the flow of life, do you understand? Movement, progress.

Lorraine Hansberry
Don't get up. Just sit a while and think. Never be afraid to sit a while and think.

Lorraine Hansberry
Seems like God don't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams — but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile.

Lorraine Hansberry
Beneatha: You didn't tell us what Alaiyo means... for all I know, you might be calling me Little Idiot or something...... Asagai: It means... it means One for Whom Bread—Food—Is Not Enough.

Lorraine Hansberry
I didn't make this world! It was given to me this way.

Lorraine Hansberry
I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.

Lorraine Hansberry