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

Quote by Ralph Ellison

Topics: Ralph Ellison Quotes

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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...

Education is all a matter of building bridges.

Education is all a matter of building bridges.

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....

Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked.

Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked.

Education is all a matter of building bridges

Education is all a matter of building bridges

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...

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...

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...

If I am playing any music at all it is jazz music.

If I am playing any music at all it is jazz music.

Change is always happening. That's one of the wonderful things about jazz music.

Change is always happening. That's one of the wonderful things about jazz music.

Jazz is the folk music of the machine age

Jazz is the folk music of the machine age