Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values.

Quote by Ralph Ellison

Topics: Ralph Ellison Quotes

Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come...

Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come...

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed...

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed...

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

Hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.

Hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past...

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past...

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone,...

I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone,...

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play...

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play...

The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's...

The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's...

Commercial rock 'n' roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church...

Commercial rock 'n' roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church...

Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and...

Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and...

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed...

I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed...

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried...

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried...

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of...

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of...

The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead.

The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead.

America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain....

America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain....

If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also...

If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also...

There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists,...

There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists,...

By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity...

By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity...