Someone Who Knows You Disappears, Lose One Version, Salman Rushdie

“Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself. Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be. Lover or enemy, mother or friend, those who know us construct us, and their several knowings slant the different facets of our characters like diamond-cutter's tools. Each such loss is a step leading to the grave, where all versions blend and end.” ― Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3299.Salman_Rushdie.

Women, Slaves, Men, Knaves, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“So long as women are slaves, men will be knaves.” - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the strapping spokeswoman for nineteenth-century suffragists.

Found in Wild Words from Wild Women: An Unbridled Collection of Candid Observations & Extremely Opinionated Bon Mots, Compiled by Autumn Stephens, page 12.

Bitterness, Coward's Revenge, Zora Neale Hurston

“Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt.” ― Zora Neale Hurston

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/15151.Zora_Neale_Hurston.

Optimist, Prisoner of Hope, Cornel West

“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.” ― Cornel West

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6176.Cornel_West.

One Thing, Afraid, Caricature, Michelle Obama

"The one thing they knew people were afraid of was the strength of a black woman. So they turned that into a caricature." - former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Essence Festival in New Orleans in Juyl, reflecting on the attacks she faced when her husband was in office.

From Ms. Magazine, Fall 2019 issue, page 6.

Sum Total, Everything, Salman Rushdie

“I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I'm gone which would not have happened if I had not come.” ― Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3299.Salman_Rushdie.

Art, Interest My People, Museums, Elizabeth Catlee

“I try to do art that will interest my people. I'm not trying to impress art critics or to do art for museums. People who run museums are millionaires and they have a whole other idea bout art.” - Elizabeth Catlee, in Washington Post, May 5, 1993

Found in Contemporary Quotations in Black, compiled and edited by Anita King, page 36.