Clarke > Clarke's Quotes

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
― James Baldwin

“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. ”
― James Baldwin

“I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.”
― Langston Hughes

“I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble.”
― Bayard Rustin

“Mistakes are a fact of life: It is the response to the error that counts.”
― Nikki Giovanni

“Don't want to be near you for the thoughts we share but the words we never have to speak.”
― Nikki Giovanni

“If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
― Audre Lorde

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.”
― Audre Lorde

“We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile”
― Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets

“Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“The field of battle is my temple. The swordpoint is my priest. The dance of death is my prayer. The killing blow is my release.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Failure doesn't define you. It's what you do after you fail that determines whether you are a leader or a waste of perfectly good air.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“I do not doubt, I do not hesitate. I am the Lioness's daughter, and I have the Lioness's strength.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“Emifal firdaant. May death claim me first.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“I wish I could live a thousand lives so I could fall in love with you a thousand times”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“Skies save me from the men in my life and all the things they think they know.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“The best lies come from the truth.”
― Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes

“You are my temple. You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“She chuckles again. “Because sane plans never work, girl,” she says. “Only the mad ones do.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“You got there first my love, I envy you so, for how will I endure without you?”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“My song is not one of peace. It is one of failure and pain. My song is one of battle and blood, death and power. It is not the song of Helene Aquilla. It is the song of the Blood Shrike.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Reaper at the Gates

“It should have been him dancing with you”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“You are lucky enough to love someone who loves you back. He is alive and breathing and in the same vicinity as you. By the skies, do something about it. For however long you have. For whatever time you get. Because if you don’t, I swear that you’ll regret it for all your years”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“The stars are so different when you're free.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“Thank you, Soul Catcher.”
“Elias,” he says after a moment, the slightest bit of warmth entering those cold gray eyes. “From you I prefer Elias.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“Emifal Firdaant,' I say to him.
'You've said that before. What does it mean?'
I cannot quite look at him when I say it. 'May death claim me first.'
'Ah, no, my love.' He gathers me close. 'You cannot go first. I could not make sense of the world if you did.'
With that, he closes his eyes, but I cannot sleep. I stare up at the peak of the tent and listen to the rain drum down on the canvas. Emifal Firdaant, I beg the skies. Emifal Firdaant.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A ​Sky Beyond the Storm

“Can I kick him?" my brother asks. "I'm going to kick him."
"He saved your life Darin."
"A small kick," he argues. "It wouldn't even hurt him. Look at him, skies. It would probably break MY foot."
"NO."
"Fine." Once past Elias, my brother turns around and mimes a kick, grinning.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Sky Beyond the Storm

“Rise, Elias Veturius.” Tas smacks my face, and I blink at him in surprise. His eyes are fierce. “You gave me a name,” he says. “I want to live to hear it on the lips of others. Rise.” I”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night

“You are my temple,” I murmur as I kneel beside her. “You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release.”
― Sabaa Tahir, A Torch Against the Night