What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?
("Invisible Man")
More Quotes from Ralph Ellison:
And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own.Ralph Ellison
Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear.
Ralph Ellison
By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication.
Ralph Ellison
Education is all a matter of building bridges.
Ralph Ellison
The truth is the light and the light is the truth.
Ralph Ellison
I'm not a separatist. The imagination is integrative. That's how you make the new -- by putting something else with what you've got. And I'm unashamedly an American integrationist.
Ralph Ellison
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