Morgan Parker Quotes

Quotes about:

• We kind of have to rewrite our own stories and our own ways of being free.

  Morgan Parker

  Being Free, Way, Stories

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• I think that we need to make it our goal to define freedom for ourselves.

  Morgan Parker

  Thinking, Goal, Needs

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

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• I think sometimes the stars align whether we want them to or not. And we're drawn to certain people and places for no other reason than...Destiny.

  Morgan Parker

  Stars, Destiny, Thinking

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• It's hard for black women to ask for help. We think we don't need it. We're used to being in pain and living with it.

  Morgan Parker

  Pain, Thinking, Black

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

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• After a while, being so honest and so vulnerable on the page ends up affecting my own kind of self possession in the world, because I am not afraid of myself and my own thoughts. I think so much of being a woman, of being a social being, of being polite, is quieting those thoughts. There's so much we try not to say as we go through the day. There's a lot of tempering and self-editing. It is a relief to make writing that space where I don't need to do that.

  Morgan Parker

  Writing, Thinking, Trying

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• And I would stop and take you in, all of you, and when our eyes lock we'd just stare into each other's souls and all of the lost time would come out in the shape of a big smile, a few tears and a tight hug that feels like...I don't know, it would feel like home.

  Morgan Parker

  Eye, Home, Soul

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• I always say that my artist statement is to not be afraid to talk about the messiness - the unpleasant feelings and happenings around my life. I also try to convey what it feels like and sounds like and smells like and looks like inside of my particular skin, to move through the world as a black American woman in her mid-twenties. Language from songs and TV shows feel integral because it helps to create the environment and describe the full picture.

  Morgan Parker

  Song, Moving, Artist

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• We can look at history and see that [political turmoil is] fertile ground for art.

  Morgan Parker

  Art, Political, Looks

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• So much of my writing process is trying to eliminate any kind of shame or fear of the thoughts that I'm having. Where I would usually backspace, I stop and say, "You know what? This is important, that I say how I feel and don't sugarcoat it, and don't avoid it." In my experience when I do try to avoid something, it makes its way into the work anyway. To be in front of it and just make friends with it is easier for me.

  Morgan Parker

  Writing, Important, Trying

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• Sometimes I feel as though I'm trying to take a hit for the team so that other people then can move forward. I'm like, "Look, I just laid out all of my stuff, so what's the worst that can happen?".

  Morgan Parker

  Team, Moving, People

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• In my experience when I do try to avoid something, it makes its way into the work anyway. To be in front of it and just make friends with it is easier for me.

  Morgan Parker

  Trying, Way, Easier

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• Аrt movements are always linked to some kind of turmoil.

  Morgan Parker

  Movement, Kind, Turmoil

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now—And It’s Amazing". Interview With Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• I really hope that people feel permission to talk about their own troubles, but also to celebrate themselves.

  Morgan Parker

  People, Trouble, Celebrate

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• Love makes you smart and strong. Smart enough to know there is nothing else that matters. Strong enough to know that nothing else can weaken you. When you're in love, you're at peace, you're whole, and always safe. I know I made you feel at peace.

  Morgan Parker

  Strong, Smart, Love You

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• I think there's something that's fascist [in Donald Trump's election], and something that I think we could probably learn from, in terms of the energy in the world right now.

  Morgan Parker

  Thinking, World, Energy

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• Mickalene [Thomas] is an artist that I have admired for a long time. So much of her work inspires me - I spend time looking at her work when I'm writing. I feel like we're working toward the same themes, and I see our work in conversation, whether we know it or not.

  Morgan Parker

  Writing, Artist, Long

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• I don't claim to say, "All black women are like me," because they're not. One type of black woman can exist, but also another kind can exist. I also really hope that people feel permission to talk about their own troubles, but also to celebrate themselves. Sometimes I feel as though I'm trying to take a hit for the team so that other people then can move forward. I'm like, "Look, I just laid out all of my stuff, so what's the worst that can happen"?

  Morgan Parker

  Team, Moving, People

  4 Copy quote

• The book [There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé?] is quite complex, and I was worried that it would be marketed as one-sided or flat, and I knew that Mickalene's [Tomas] work would be able to encompass all the many states of being that are in the book.

  Morgan Parker

  Beautiful, Book, Able

  4 Copy quote

• Art movements are always linked to some kind of turmoil. We can look at history and see that [political turmoil is] fertile ground for art. I also think that it gives artists something, a way of kind of processing. My friends and I have all been super motivated to work and to do the work that we need to and want to and think should be in the world. Hard times are really a fire under your ass to prioritize and think, "Okay, how can I challenge myself to put something in the world that wasn't there that can reach other folks and help them to process"?

  Morgan Parker

  Art, Hard Times, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• I wanted [the book 'There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé?'] to be colorful. I wanted it to be evocative. I wanted a figure of a black woman that the reader has to confront.

  Morgan Parker

  Beautiful, Book, Black

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• I think often if people don't have a lot of experience with a particular type of person or a particular type of brain, they can make dangerous assumptions. That's one of the reasons that I'm so interested in contradicting and troubling held thoughts about black women.

  Morgan Parker

  Thinking, People, Black

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• I don't claim to say, "All black women are like me," because they're not.

  Morgan Parker

  Black, Claims, Like Me

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

  4 Copy quote

• I'm not reading any kind of fantasy [for young adults] or Hunger Games or anything like that. It's more just like geeks with crushes. It's very sweet, and I'm enjoying how honest they are, and I'm enjoying the humanity in them.

  Morgan Parker

  Crush, Sweet, Reading

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• I'm working on a young adult novel. I've been working on it for a while, because I don't know how to write a novel and I'm teaching myself. For that reason, I've been reading a lot of YA [young adults], which I never have before. It's totally new to me.

  Morgan Parker

  Teaching, Reading, Writing

  "There’s Poetry About Beyoncé Now - And It’s Amazing". Interview with Becca Andrews, www.motherjones.com. February 15, 2017.

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• Since the election [of Donald Trump], I've been thinking about a lot of theory. Lots of [Michel] Foucault and [Karl] Marx, thinking about different systems, thinking about power. Trying to figure out what I can take and learn from history as a tool for getting through whatever is happening right now, which feels very significant and major.

  Morgan Parker

  Thinking, Trying, Different

  4 Copy quote

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