“I cried to think of how lucky we both were to have found each other, since it was clear that we were the only ones in the world who could understand what we understood in the instantaneous manner in which we understood it.”

— Audre Lorde, book Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Source: Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I cried to think of how lucky we both were to have found each other, since it was clear that we were the only ones in t…" by Audre Lorde?

Audre Lorde72

writer and activist 1934–1992

Related quotes

“Understanding is not such that we either enjoy it or lack it altogether. To be human and to be aware is to encounter only what is in some manner understood. Thus, it may be said that understanding is an unsought condition; we inexorably inhabit a world of intelligibles.”

Michael Oakeshott (1901–1990) British philosopher

I. On the Theoretical Understanding of Human Conduct
On Human Conduct (1975)

“I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each other's roles, if we could actually be in each other's place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! … And I think it would lead to a greater understanding.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

On her song "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", in a Radio 1 Classic Albums interview with Richard Skinner (26 January 1992) http://gaffa.org/cloud/music/running_up_that_hill.html Context: I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each other's roles, if we could actually be in each other's place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! … And I think it would lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either... you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, "well, no, why not a deal with God!" You know, because in a way it's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called "Deal With God", that was its title. But we were told that if we kept this title that it would not be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn't play it, France wouldn't play it, and Australia wouldn't play it! Ireland wouldn't play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had God in the title.

“We were not going to understand gender inequality or [other inequalities] unless we understood the interpersonal processes that mediated and enacted institutional structures and larger patterns of inequality.”

Cecilia L. Ridgeway (1947) American sociologist

Ridgeway (2013) Meet the 2013 ASA President: Cecilia Ridgeway http://www.asanet.org/cecilia-ridgeway. 2013

“We learned we wanted too much. We could only give from the perspective of who we were and what we had. Apart, we were able to see with even greater clarity that we didn’t want to be without each other.”

Patti Smith Just Kids

Source: Just Kids

“It is by universal misunderstanding that we agree with each other.

If, by some misfortune, we understood each other, we would never agree.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

C'est par le malentendu universel que tout le monde s'accorde.Car si, par malheur, on se comprenait, on ne pourrait jamais s'accorder.
Journaux intimes (1864–1867; published 1887), Mon cœur mis à nu (1864)