Quotes from book
Shadow and Act

Shadow and Act

Shadow and Act is a collection of essays by Ralph Ellison, published in 1964.


Ralph Ellison photo

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

Shadow and Act (New York: Random House, 1964), Introduction, p. xix; in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 56.

Ralph Ellison photo

“The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.”

Shadow and Act (New York: Random House, 1964), Introduction, p. xix; in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 56.

Similar authors

Ralph Ellison photo
Ralph Ellison 82
American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer 1914–1994
Cesare Pavese photo
Cesare Pavese 137
Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
Umberto Eco photo
Umberto Eco 120
Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic…
Walter Benjamin photo
Walter Benjamin 70
German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892…
Fernando Pessoa photo
Fernando Pessoa 288
Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publi…
Marcel Proust photo
Marcel Proust 41
French novelist, critic, and essayist
Henry Miller photo
Henry Miller 187
American novelist
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Jean Paul Sartre 321
French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, sc…
Haruki Murakami photo
Haruki Murakami 655
Japanese author, novelist
Sinclair Lewis photo
Sinclair Lewis 136
American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright