Love Is a Revolution Quotes

“You two are family. Family. That alone ought to be enough for you to respect each other. You’re also two women. Black women. The most radical thing you can do is love yourself and each other.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“You want forgiveness, you’ve got to receive it. Don’t do you no good to punish yourself. Just be a better person today, tomorrow.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“I can’t stand when people don’t follow through. Make a plan, stick to it. Say what you mean and mean what you say.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“I don’t know why people try not to cry, why we hold it in. I have decided to cry as much and as hard as I need to. Sometimes it is a snotty nose sob, the kind that bellows out, echoing off the high ceilings. An earthquake cry that shakes my insides and makes my shoulders tremble. And sometimes, it comes in silence. Just tears bubbling up in the corners of my eyes, sometimes falling, but sometimes just swaying in the ebb and flow of sorrow. Sometimes the cry comes without tears, comes in the shake of my voice, the hoarseness. Sometimes it comes camouflaged as laughter. (See number 2 to know what I’m laughing about.) I laugh to keep from crying. A belly laugh, even. But still, the tears are there. And the afternoon goes on, crying and laughing, crying and laughing. And that saying I laughed so hard I cried takes on a whole new meaning.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Sounds like you gotta get good at doing both. Loving yourself enough not to get lost in him and loving him enough to give him the best of who you are.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“How sometimes I feel like a burden to the people who are supposed to love me, the people who are supposed to be there, always, no matter what.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“I don’t mind you telling me I’m beautiful. Just tell me because you see it, not because you think I don’t know.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“My mind. It is its own. Even though sometimes it is tempted to change, falter. Deep down it is sure, made up, full of ideas and thoughts and sweet memories and an imagination that built faraway places when I was a child, places I transformed into playlands: under tables, in the back seat of the car, on fire escapes and stoops. My mind. It is strong and holds all of who I am. It is still forming and growing and in so many ways, still the same. My mind. It is expansive, and there is so much room to fill, so much more to know.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“And I love how you love,” he says.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Sometimes you have to acknowledge what's hurting you. How else will you ever heal?”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Singer and activist Nina Simone said, ‘It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times in which we live.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. . . . And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Love don’t come natural to everybody. Love is something you’ve got to practice in order to get good at.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Revolution is not a one-time event . . . or something that happens around us rather than inside of us.—Audre Lorde”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“love his dark skin. The way his white shirt contrasts against his deep brown complexion.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“THINGS I NEED TO FORGIVE MYSELF FOR 1.For being just as judgmental as the people who have judged me. 2.For competing with other girls instead of complimenting them. 3.For pretending to be anyone other than the perfectly imperfect person I am.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Self-love is radical love. Self-love is radical love. Self-love is radical love. Today, I’ve started my own revolution.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Today, the scripture is turned to James 2. She’s highlighted verses 14 through 18. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“So how do we start over?” I ask. Tye says, “Tell me something about you that I don’t know.” And we begin again.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Nala,” Tye whispers. “Our stop is next.” We get off the train and climb up the mountain of stairs back into the humid night. Neither of us wants to leave the other, so we walk the long way home.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“I guess when you feel like you’re not good enough, the next best thing is trying to be like someone else.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Somehow, I think she knows even if he’s never said it to her. You know when someone loves you.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“There are always the words we said and the words we wished we said when it comes to the people we love.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“I like it,” he says. “You’re so beautiful.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Tye stands and says to me, “Tell me what you want and I’ll get it.” I want you.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“I’m a pescatarian,” he tells me. “A what?” “I eat fish,” he says. “Oh yeah, me too,” I say. “So, you’re not a vegetarian?” I clear my throat. “I’m a vegetarian who’s sometimes a pescatarian.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Then, finally, the lights rise. And I see him.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“Just write,” JT says. “Just write as if no one is going to read it. Write as if you’re telling yourself what you need to know.”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution

“What is it with all this talk about doing things for myself? How do you know if you’re doing something for yourself or someone else?”
― Renée Watson, Love Is a Revolution