Ralph Ellison: Quotes about life

Ralph Ellison was American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. Explore interesting quotes on life.

Ralph Ellison: 164 quotes6 likes

“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.”

Source: Invisible Man

“America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's "winner take nothing" that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many— This is not prophecy, but description.”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Epilogue.
Source: Invisible Man (1952)

“I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of all I find that I love. In order to get some of it down I have to love. I sell you no phony forgiveness, I'm a desperate man—but too much of your life will be lost, its meaning lost, unless you approach it as much through love as through hate. So I approach it through division. So I denounce and I defend and I hate and I love.”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Epilogue.
Invisible Man (1952)

“Life is as the sea, art a ship in which man conquers life's crushing formlessness, reducing it to a course, a series of swells, tides and wind currents inscribed on a chart.”

Ralph Ellison

"Richard Wright's Blues" (1945), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 133.

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

Ralph Ellison

"The Art of Fiction: An Interview" (The Paris Review, Spring 1955), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 217.

“When American life is most American it is apt to be most theatrical.”

Ralph Ellison

"Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" (1958), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 108.