Ntozake Shange Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

Somebody/ anybody sing a black girl's song bring her out to know herself to know you but sing her rhythms carin/ struggle/ hard times sing her song of life she's been dead so long closed in silence so long she doesn't know the sound of her own voice her infinite beauty she's half-notes scattered without rhythm/ no tune sing her sighs sing the song of her possibilities sing a righteous gospel let her be born let her be born & handled warmly.

Ntozake Shange
My spirit is too ancient to understand the separation of soul & gender

Ntozake Shange
I found god in myself
& i loved her
i loved her fiercely.

Ntozake Shange
Indigo, I don't want to hear another word about it, do you understand me. I'm not setting the table with my Sunday china for fifteen dolls who got their period today.

Ntozake Shange
The slaves who were ourselves had known terror intimately, confused sunrise with pain, & accepted indifference as kindness.

Ntozake Shange
I cant count the number of times i have viscerally wanted to attack deform n maim the language that I waz taught to hate myself in
the language that perpetuates the notions that cause pain to every black child as he/she learns to speak of the world & the 'self.'

Ntozake Shange
Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic, who can share or not share her powers. A woman with a moon falling from her mouth, roses between her legs and tiaras of Spanish moss, this woman is a consort of the spirits.

Ntozake Shange
I usedta live in the world really be in the world free & sweet talkin good mornin & thank-you & nice day uh huh i cant now i cant be nice to nobody nice is such a rip-off regular beauty & a smile in the street is just a set-up

Ntozake Shange
Layin in water
she became herself
ordinary
brown braided woman
with big legs & full lips
reglar...
& now she stood a
reglar colored girl

Ntozake Shange
Ever since i realized there waz
someone callt
a colored girl an evil woman a
bitch or a nag
i been tryin not to be that & leave
bitterness
in somebody else's cup

Ntozake Shange
Nappy edges
the roots of your hair/what
turns back when we sweat, run,
make love, dance, get afraid, get
happy: the tell-tale sign of living

Ntozake Shange
Love kisses were the best kind. There was no denying that a kiss from someone you loved was different from any other kind of kiss and should be studied up on and looked at carefully, so you could recognize it when love came down on you. That's what love did. It came down on you like rain or sunshine.

Ntozake Shange
My love is too delicate to have thrown back on my face

Ntozake Shange
Somebody almost walked off wid alia my stuff
like a kleptomaniac workin hard & forgettin while stealin
this is mine/this ain't yr stuff

Ntozake Shange