Charlene > Charlene's Quotes

“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing.”
― E.L. Doctorow

“Language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“We move not on but forward.”
― Sarai Johnson, Grown Women

“We can learn from trauma. We can become better, more efficient, if we do the work.”
― Sarai Johnson, Grown Women

“I don’t think you’re ever really grown.”
― Sarai Johnson, Grown Women

“Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone you love is stay the hell away from them.”
― Sarai Johnson, Grown Women

“Similarly, I owe a great deal to my female ancestors and the women who mothered me.”
― Sarai Johnson, Grown Women

“And anytime you do your best. Whatever your best is. You are a winner. You are a writer. You are telling your story. Good for all of us. You are.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems – A Tour de Force of African American Poetry and Contemporary Literature

“And isn’t that what literature should teach us. To be our own hero. To love. To care. To cry. To laugh. To live. And try to let others live, too.”
― Nikki Giovanni, Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems – A Tour de Force of African American Poetry and Contemporary Literature