Bessie Head Quotes

• I am building a stairway to the stars. I have the authority to take the whole of mankind up there with me. That is why I write.

  Bessie Head

  Stars, Writing, Building

  51 Copy quote

• People with really weak characters cause an immense amount of suffering in the world. They destroy whole civilisations.

  Bessie Head

  Character, People, Suffering

  Bessie Head, Randolph Vigne (1991). “A gesture of belonging: letters from Bessie Head, 1965-1979”, Heinemann

  44 Copy quote

• I write because I have authority from life to do so.

  Bessie Head

  Writing, Authority

  24 Copy quote

• Poverty has a home in Africalike a quiet second skin.It may be the only place on earth where it is worn with unconscious dignity.

  Bessie Head

  Home, Skins, Earth

  1989 Tales of Tenderness and Power.

  32 Copy quote

• Love is mutually feeding each other, not one living on another like a ghoul.

  Bessie Head

  Love Is, Ghouls, Feeding

  1973 A Question of Power

  37 Copy quote

• A discipline I have observed is an attitude of love and reverence to people.

  Bessie Head

  Attitude, Discipline, People

  Bessie Head (1990). “A Woman Alone: Autobiographical Writings”, African Writers Series

  19 Copy quote

• The philosophy of love and peace strangely overlooked who was in possession of the guns. There had been love and peace for some time on the continent of Africa because for all this time black men had been captivated by the doctrines of Christianity. It took them centuries to realize its contradictions. ... perhaps there was no greater crime as yet than all the lies Western civilization had told in the name of Jesus Christ.

  Bessie Head

  Jesus, Lying, Philosophy

  27 Copy quote

• Most people live uncomplicated lives. They have work and quietly rear their children. There is an order and sanity about them that keeps the world going. There is an outer disorder and insanity about my life which makes me a victim. One of the disorders is that they won't give us citizenship here.

  Bessie Head

  Children, Order, People

  Bessie Head, Randolph Vigne (1991). “A gesture of belonging: letters from Bessie Head, 1965-1979”, Heinemann

  28 Copy quote

• I might really have gone round the bend. I mean people who get visions and see a gigantic light descend on them from the sky can't be all there but if so I feel mighty happy. If one is happy and cracked it's much better than being unhappy and sane.

  Bessie Head

  Mean, Light, Sky

  Bessie Head, Randolph Vigne (1991). “A gesture of belonging: letters from Bessie Head, 1965-1979”, Heinemann

  26 Copy quote

• It seemed to be a makeshift replacement for love, absenting oneself from stifling atmospheres, because love basically was a torrential storm of feeling; it thrived only in partnership with laughing generosity and truthfulness.

  Bessie Head

  Generosity, Laughing, Feelings

  22 Copy quote

• I have often noticed that the need for cash and the production of a masterpiece just don't coincide with me. Money will hit me at a big off-period and genius will hit me in starvation, that is, I often get the money when I don't think I deserve it and have been lolling around for days and days thinking the most abysmal thoughts.

  Bessie Head

  Thinking, Needs, Genius

  Bessie Head, Randolph Vigne (1991). “A gesture of belonging: letters from Bessie Head, 1965-1979”, Heinemann

  14 Copy quote

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