Pearl Cleage > Quotes

“We danced too wild, and we sang too long, and we hugged too hard, and we kissed too sweet, and howled just as loud as we wanted to howl, because by now we were all old enough to know that what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.”
― Pearl Cleage

“...no woman can love a weak man hard enough to make him strong.”
― Pearl Cleage, Just Wanna Testify

“Loneliness is black coffee and late-night television; solitude is herb tea and soft music. Solitude, quality solitude, is an assertion of self-worth, because only in the stillness can we hear the truth of our own unique voices.”
― Pearl Cleage, Deals With the Devil: And Other Reasons to Riot

“If you don't annoy your big sister for no good reason from time to time, she thinks you don't love her anymore.”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“Any time your life is at stake and you can't find even one woman to come forward and say, 'This is a good man,' your problem isn't what kind of woman THEY are. Your problem is what kind of men YOU are.”
― Pearl Cleage, Just Wanna Testify

“Discomfort is always a necessary part of enlightenment.”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“Sometimes you meet yourself on the road before you have a chance to learn the appropriate greeting. Faced with your own possibilities, the hard part is knowing a speech is not required. All you have to say is yes.”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“the problem with knowing is that it takes away the possibility of pretending!”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“What looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“you can't know the meaning of the lesson until class is over!”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“You can't save a person who doesn't want to be saved. It was like Mr. Eddie always told the new gardeners: Everybody's got to kill their own snakes.”
― Pearl Cleage, Till You Hear from Me

“When you're young, there's a whole lot of stuff you say you'll never do. Once you get a little older, the list tends to get shorter.”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight!”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“Sometimes you have to show them what they want to see in order to get them to show you who they really are.”
― Pearl Cleage, Till You Hear from Me

“Defiance means you got somebody with power over you.”
― Pearl Cleage, Till You Hear from Me

“old habits are hard to break, but not impossible!”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“...freedom can be a full-time job if you let it.”
― Pearl Cleage, Till You Hear from Me

“Buying flowers is not just a way to bring home beauty. It's an expression of confidence that better days are coming. It's a defiant finger in the face of those naysayers who would have you believe your fortunes will never improve.”
― Pearl Cleage, Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do

“Both men knew the only thing more valuable than a favor well done was a secret well kept. This had the potential to be both.”
― Pearl Cleage, Till You Hear from Me

“It is my belief that conscious African American students ought to be in a constant state of rage and in a constant search for ways to channel that rage into freedom struggle.”
― Pearl Cleage

“Because sometimes love just needs a witness... Somebody to testify. Sometimes love just needed somebody to step forward and say, Here I am, Spirit. Send me.”
― Pearl Cleage, Just Wanna Testify

“This society gives points for pregnancy and for birthing, but after that, we isolate the mother and the baby and expect them to function the best way they can. It is very anti-family, anti-woman, anti-person!”
― Pearl Cleage, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons, & Love Affairs

“I need some time to myself by myself! There must be time for thought and music and peace and solitude! Also: No one can keep a creative house and work every day from nine to five. Can’t be done, folks. Ain’t no way.”
― Pearl Cleage, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons, & Love Affairs

“Sometimes the contradictions in their lives are so intense they seem manufactured for teaching life lessons, but it's hard to keep up with what you're supposed to be learning in that terrible moment between defiance and despair when all your energy is going into figuring out why it took so long to name the thing that's driving you crazy. At those moments, the best I can do is keep quiet and say a little prayer, which is what I did.”
― Pearl Cleage, I Wish I Had a Red Dress

“It is so important to be conscious even when it makes you realize how much negative stuff you have enjoyed all your life until you realized it was all anti you.”
― Pearl Cleage, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons, & Love Affairs

“What looks like crazy on an ordinary day, looks a lot like love when you catch it in the moonlight.”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“When Blue sang, a lyric became a libation; a song became a sacrament.”
― Pearl Cleage, Just Wanna Testify

“I think that a black poet can do one of two things for his people: 1. Reflect the beauty of their black life; whole, broken and mending. 2. Lead them in a righteous direction by showing them the path and what lies ahead in liberation and victory. If you call yourself a black poet and you ain’t doin’ that, you ain’t bein’ truthful and you ain’t bein’ fair and in general, you ain’t doin’ nothin’ for yr people/yr self/the struggle/the nation/the community. In short, you ain’t doin’ shit.”
― Pearl Cleage, Things I Should Have Told My Daughter: Lies, Lessons, & Love Affairs

“sometimes you meet yourself on the road before you have a to learn the appropriate greeting!”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“I know once you repent, Jesus himself isn't big on punishment, but according to all the Old Testament stories, I ever heard, his was not above it”
― Pearl Cleage, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day