Piri Thomas Quotes

5 Sourced Quotes

What a world! Whether you're right or wrong, as long as you're strong, you're right.

Piri Thomas

The worlds of home and school were made up of rules laid down by adults who had forgotten the feeling of what it means to be a kid but expected a kid to remember to be an adult—something he hadn't gotten to yet. The world of street belonged to the kid alone.

Piri Thomas

We must learn words can be bullets or butterflies.

Piri Thomas

Man! How many times have I stood on the rooftop of my broken-down building at night and watched the bulb-lit world below. Like somehow it's different at night, this my Harlem. There ain't no bright sunlight to reveal the stark naked truth of garbage-lepered streets. Gone is the drabness and hurt, covered by a friendly night. It makes clean the dirty-faced kids.

Piri Thomas

Our children are beauty
with the right to be born.
Born anew at each a.m.
Like a child out of twilight,
flying toward sunlight,
Born anew at each a.m.

Piri Thomas

Piri Thomas

Piri Thomas

Born: September 30, 1928

Died: October 17, 2011 (aged 83)

Bio: Piri Thomas was a writer and poet whose memoir Down These Mean Streets became a best-seller.

Known for:

Down These Mean Streets (1967)
Amigo Brothers (1978)
Stories from El Barrio (1978)
Seven long times (1974)
Savior, Savior, hold my hand (1972)

Piri Thomas on Wikipedia

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