Ernest J. Gaines > Quotes

“Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands? ”
― Ernest Gaines

“I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“I have no more to say except this: We must live with our own conscience.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“And that's all we are Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood. until we - each of us, individually- decide to become something else. I am still that piece of drifting wood, and those out there are no better. But you can be better. ”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“Nietzsche said without music, life would be a mistake. To me, without books, life would be a mistake.”
― Ernest J. Gaines

“There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.”
― Ernest J. Gaines

“You've got to bend with the wind or you're broken.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, Conversations with Ernest Gaines

“Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men

“Read. Read. Read. Write. Write. Write.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, Interview

“He told us that most of us would die violently, and those who did not would be brought down to the level of beasts.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“both of them, then he leaned over and pulled back the raincoat for a second, and flung it back with the same fury. Now he was”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Tragedy of Brady Sims

“Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free. Yes, they must believe, they must believe. Because I know what it means to be a slave. I am a slave.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“Everything's been said, but it needs saying again.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, Conversations with Ernest Gaines

“I think it's God that makes people care for people, Jefferson. I think it's God makes children play and people sing. I believe it's God that brings loved ones together. I believe it's God that makes trees bud and food grow out of the earth.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“...my heart may have been in it but my soul was not.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, Conversations with Ernest Gaines

“The artist must be like a heart surgeon. He must approach something with sympathy, but with a sort of coldness and work and work until he finds some kind of perfection in his work. You can't have blood splashing all over the place. Things must be done very cleanly.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, Conversations with Ernest Gaines

“Plege legen toda flag. Ninety state. ’Merica. Er—er—yeah, which it stand. Visibly. Amen.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“Do I know what a man is ? Do I know how a man is supposed to die ? I’m still trying to find out how a man should live. Am I supposed to tell someone how to die who has never lived ?”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“I tried to decide just how I should respond to them. Whether I should act like the teacher that I was, or like the nigger that I was supposed to be.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stand, and think, and show that common humanity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth. They would no longer have the justification for having made us slaves and keeping us in the condition we are in. As long as none of us stand, they're safe. They're safe with me. They're safe with Reverend Ambrose. I don't want them to feel safe with you any more.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“My master jecked up my dress and gived my mistress the whip and told her to teach me a lesson. Every time she hit me she asked me what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown. She hit me again: what I said my name was. I said Jane Brown.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“wanted to be there to say good-bye to him. No matter what a person does, there ought to be somebody on his side at the last moment.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, Of Love and Dust

“I was not there, yet I was there. No, I did not go to the trial, I did not hear the verdict, because I knew all the time what it would be. Still, I was there. I was there as much as anyone else was there.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man good by mr wigin im gon ax paul if he can bring you this sincely jefferson”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“Do you know what a myth is, Jefferson?" I asked him. "A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they're better than anyone else on earth--and that's a myth. The last thing they ever want is to see a black man stan, and think, and show that common humanity that is in us all. It would destroy their myth. They would no longer have justification of having made us slaves and keeping us in the condition we are in. As long as none of us stand, they're safe. They're safe with me. They're safe with Reverend Ambrose. I don't want them to feel safe with you anymore.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“We ain't giving up," I said. "We done gone this far.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

“Then he spoke of James Joyce. He told about Joyce’s family, his religion, his education, his writing. He spoke of a book called Dubliners and a story in the book titled “Ivy Day in the Committee Room.” Regardless of race, regardless of class, that story was universal, he said.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying

“That's man's way. To prove something. Day in, day out he must prove he is a man. Poor Fool.”
― Ernest J. Gaines, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman