94 Zora Neale Hurston Quotes That Will Make Your Day!
Anthropologist, folklorist and short story writer Zora Neale Hurston was a major contributor to 'Harlem Renaissance', which was later known as 'New Negro Movement'. The famous American novelist published around 50 essays, plays and stories covering personal experiences and incidents. She was renowned for 'Mules and Men', 'Their Eyes were Watching God' and her master work 'Every Tongue Got to Confess' (a vivid collection of folktales). Zora Neale Hurston's life was influenced by her American-African heritage. Being a daughter of former black slaves, Hurston's childhood was full of struggles. She's a self-made author, who financed her own education. After working several petty jobs, she got her biggest breakthrough from Journal of American Folklore. She had explored various forms of fine arts through projects like Mule-Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life. Her literary talents are evident from her works "The Great Day", "From Sun to Sun" and autobiography "Dust Tracks on a Road". In 1940s, she had to bear false accusations of molesting a 10-year old body. She suffered from severe strokes and underwent financial challenges till her death. Despite this, Zora's works inspired and encouraged a new generation of writers with her academic and social experience. She greatly influenced young talents like Ralph Ellison and Gayl Jones in later years. Her work was largely overlooked until writer Alice Walker brought it back to the spotlight. We all remember her beautiful words and their impact. We have collected her quotes from her writings and books. Here are a few of her quotes that hit us right in the heart, every single time.
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.
I love myself when I am laughing. . . and then again when I am looking mean and impressive.
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.
If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.
Some people could look at a mud puddle and see an ocean with ships.
Love is like the sea. It's a moving thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from the shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.
Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt.
Those that don't got it, can't show it. Those that got it, can't hide it.
She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.
No hour is ever eternity, but it has its right to weep.
She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.
A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.
I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.
I made up my mind to keep my feelings to myself since they did not seem to matter to anyone else but me.
She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her.
She didn't read books so she didn't know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.
So she sat on the porch and watched the moon rise. Soon its amber fluid was drenching the earth, and quenching the thirst of the day.
Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place.
They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.
It was the meanest moment of eternity.
Love, I find, is like singing.
I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands.
...she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see...
There is no single face in nature, because every eye that looks upon it, sees it from its own angle. So every man's spice-box seasons his own food.
If you want that good feeling that comes from doing things for other folks then you have to pay for it in abuse and misunderstanding.
An envious heart makes a treacherous ear.
Her old thoughts were going to come in handy now, but new words would have to be made and said to fit them.
