Joyce > Joyce's Quotes

“Here in these circuses and carnivals we all love each other with our oddities and queernesses.”
― Rawi Hage, Carnival

“You can’t offer a series of vague generalizations referring to the supposed characteristics of approximately sixteen million people scattered over the earth’s surface — that was the pre-war figure, of course — as a valid explanation of your attitude toward a given individual. It doesn’t make sense.”
― Gwethalyn Graham, Earth and High Heaven

“A Jew describes another Jew simply as a human being; a Gentile describes him, first and foremost, as a Jew. Even if the Gentile doesn’t happen to be generalizing at the moment, nevertheless the whole description is given in terms of that one specific frame of reference, at least by implication, so that the finished portrait is, at best, distorted and somewhat less than life size. The highest compliment the average Gentile can pay a Jew, apparently, is to say that he doesn’t look or behave like one, so that although it may only be operating in the negative, the frame of reference is still there.”
― Gwethalyn Graham, Earth and High Heaven

“What he was saying was of no importance in itself, it had all been said before so many times, repeated parrot-like but with an air of acute perception and originality by one person after another, in one country after another, all the way down through history. After all, even Hitler was unable to think up anything really new on the subject of the Jews; he merely said what everybody else had been saying, only of course he said it louder and oftener, and put it a bit more strongly.”
― Gwethalyn Graham, Earth and High Heaven

“This idea that Canada's racial injustices are not as bad as they could be, this notion of Slavery Lite, of Racism Lite, of what my friend calls the "toy version of racism" is a very Canadian way of saying: remember what we could do to you if we wanted to. Passive-aggressive racism is central to Canada's national mythology and identity.”
― Desmond Cole, The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power

“We demand justice and we get process.”
― Desmond Cole, The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power

“I already know why police chose over, and over, and over to intimidate, and attack, and harm, and kill Black people in my city, in Canada. It has nothing to do with any single incident, any presumed provocation or threat, or misunderstanding. The police are just doing their job. A central responsibility of policing has always been to discipline Black people on behalf of the ruling class.”
― Desmond Cole

“The false promise of objectivity in journalism reinforces white supremacy.”
― Desmond Cole, The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power

“We need to cultivate listening, partnership, and solidarity to carve out a better collective future.”
― Desmond Cole, The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power

“Was there no hope? the tigress seemed to be
asking her. Will I always remain here? Will I never return home?”
― Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

“somewhat”
― Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

“Because, says Emilia, there was a rumor about you. Someone swore that, when you were a little girl, he once saw you touch a tiger. And the tiger didn't harm you, it let you stroke it. It was always said that you had charmed the beast, like an enchantress. Impossible, of course, but—
Not impossible, says Lucrezia, not at all.”
― Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait