“ You're a Black educated fool, son. These white folk have newspapers, magazines, radios, spokesmen to get their ideas across. If they want to tell the world a lie, they can tell it so well that it beco… Ralph Ellison
“ I can hear you say, What a horrible, irresponsible bastard! And you're right. I leap to agree with you. I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisi… Ralph Ellison
“ You see, he said turning to Mr Norton, he has eyes and ears and a good distended African nose, but he fails to understand the simple facts of life. Understand. Understand? It’s worse than that. He reg… Ralph Ellison
“ That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their INNER eyes, those eyes with which th… Ralph Ellison
“ All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. Ralph Ellison
“ I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- an… Ralph Ellison
“ Then too, you're constantly being bumped against by those of poor vision. Or again, you doubt if you really exist. You wonder whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's minds. Say, a figure… Ralph Ellison
“ So why do I write, torturing myself to put it down? Because in spite of myself I've learned some things. Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled "file and forget," and I… Ralph Ellison
“ And all Negroes at some period of their lives there is that yearning for a sense of group unity that is the yearning of men for a flag: for a unity that cannot be compromised, that cannot be bought; t… Ralph Ellison
“ 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? What a waste, what a senseless waste! But what of those things which you actually d… Ralph Ellison
“ I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more efficient blinding. Ralph Ellison
“ She was something more- a force, a stable, familiar force like something out of my past which kept me from whirling off into some unknown which I dared not face. It was a most painful position for at… Ralph Ellison
“ I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers. Ralph Ellison
“ The moment I entered the bright, buzzing lobby of Men’s House I was overcome by a sense of alienation and hostility … The lobby was the meeting place for various groups still caught up in the illusion… Ralph Ellison
“ And sometimes the difference between individual and organized indignation is the difference between criminal and political action. Ralph Ellison
“ Words of Emancipation didn't arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. his mind went on. Ralph Ellison
“ But what a feeling can come over a man just from seeing the things he believes in and hopes for symbolized in the concrete form of a man. In something that gives a focus to all the other things he kno… Ralph Ellison
