LV > LV's Quotes

“...women, brave as stars at dawn”
― Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory

“If a woman is worth remembering,' said my grandmother, 'there is no need to have her name carved in letters.”
― Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory

“The girl she said, I didn’t tell you this because it was a small thing, but little girls, they leave their hearts at home when they walk outside. Hearts are so precious. They don’t want to lose them.”
― Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory

“They are the people of creation. Their maker…gives them the sky to carry because they are so strong. These people do not know who they are, but if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry part of the sky on your head.”
― Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory

“I also know there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don't matter to anyone but themselves. I look up at the sky and I see you there.”
― Edwidge Danticat, Krik? Krak!

“Life was neither something you defended by hiding nor surrendered calmly on other people's terms, but something you lived bravely, out in the open, and that if you had to lose it, you should lose it on your own terms.”
― Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker

“The women in your family have never lost touch with one another. Death is a path we take to meet on the other side.”
― Edwidge Danticat, Krik? Krak!

“I want to look happily forward. I want to be optimistic. I want to have a dream. I want to live in jubilee. I want my daughters to feel that they have the power to at least try to change things, even in a world that resists change with more strength than they have. I want to tell them they can overcome everything, if the are courageous, resilient and brave. Paradoxically, I also want to tell them their crowns have already been bought and paid for and that all they have to do is put them on their heads. But the world keeps tripping me up. My certainty keeps flailing.”
― Edwidge Danticat, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race

“Old age is not meant to be survived alone," Man Rapadou said, her voice trailing with her own hidden thoughts. "Death should come gently, slowly, like a man's hand approaching your body. There can be joy in impatience if there is time to find the joy.”
― Edwidge Danticat, The Farming of Bones

“I believe there is power in words, power in asserting our existence, our experience, our lives, through words.”
― Jesmyn Ward, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race