Alice Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist whom wrote the novel The Color Purple for which she won a Pulitzer Prize.
Alice Walker grew up Georgia in the American south during a time of segregation, living under ‘Jim Crow laws‘, and wild racism.
Walker’s parents resisted landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work in the fields at a young age. A white plantation owner said to her that black people had “no need for education.”
Minnie Walker, Alice’s mother, replied “You might have some black children somewhere, but they don’t live in this house. Don’t you ever come around here again talking about how my children don’t need to learn how to read and write.”
Her mother enrolled Alice in first grade when she was four years old.
Alice put the education her mother fought for to good use going on to write smash hit novel The Color Purple. Alice also wrote the novels Meridian and The Third Life of Grange Copeland, among many other works.
The Color Purple 10 Inspiring Quotes from Alice Walker
“Any God I ever found in church, I brought in myself.” – The Color Purple
The most powerful faith lies within. You are the master of your own destiny. Your faith can move mountains.
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
“Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.”
Reliance on others for your own happiness, is a recipe for misery. Cook up you own glorious life.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – The Color Purple
“Life is better than death, I believe, if only because it is less boring, and because it has fresh peaches in it.”
“What the mind doesn’t understand, it worships or fears.”
“Activism is my rent for living on the planet.”
“Hard times require furious dancing. Each of us is proof.”
The harder things get. The more exuberantly we must celebrate our existence.
“The more life changes, the more it stays the same.” – The Color Purple
Because something feels different doesn’t mean it is. Aim for real, measurable changes.