Quotes by : Ralph Ellison

The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge....

Perhaps everyone loved someone; I didn't now, I couldn't give much thought to love; in order to travel....

...she was something more- a force, a stable, familiar force like something out of my past which kept....

So now they're shaking in their boots and looking for someone to give them the answer they want to hear.....

What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had....

Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.....

The work of art is, after all, an act of faith in our ability to communicate symbolically.

When American life is most American it is apt to be most theatrical.

When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.

It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere....