Quotes by Tillie Olsen

“Literary history and the present are dark with silences . . . I have had special need to learn all I could of this over the years, myself so nearly remaining mute and having to let writing die over...”

“The clock talked loud. I threw it away, it scared me what it talked.”

“And when is there time to remember, to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to total?”

“Women have the right to say: this is surface, this falsifies reality, this degrades.”

“There are worse words than cuss words there are words that hurt.”

“I know that I haven't powers enough to divide myself into one who earns and one who creates.”

“There are worse words than cuss words there are words that hurt.”

“I learned a lot being around cows, she recalled in 2002. It seemed to me they were so damned patient.”

“Public libraries were my sustenance and my college.”

“Sad is the country that requires women's studies, black and ethnic studies.”

“Sometimes the young-discouraged, overwhelmed-ask me incredulously: You mean you still have hope? And I hear myself saying, yes, I still have hope: beleaguered, starved, battered, based hope. Throug...”

“For forty-seven years they had been married. How deep back the stubborn, gnarled roots of the quarrel reached, no one could say--but only now, when tending to the needs of others no longer shackled...”

“She would not exchange her solitude for anything. Never again to be forced to move to the rhythms of others.”

“It is a long baptism into the seas of humankind, my daughter. Better immersion than to live untouched.”

“I stand here ironing, and what you asked me moves tormented back and forth with the iron.”

“Because I'm a human being and human beings have a need to express themselves. Also, I stuttered. So I listened a lot, and there was a lot to listen to in my neighborhood. And there was the wonder o...”

“Yes, of course, the silences go on. The first silencing is the inequality of the educational system. We still have a strong class system in this country. Look at what's happening with most public s...”

“Think about all that we've lost that has been said orally because nobody was taking it down. I feel very fortunate to live in a time where we have so many different voices. We have a much richer li...”

“There are hidden injuries of class whether you are conscious of it or not.”

“Central High School was where I first learned about the power of circumstances, about economics. I learned about what people of color were like through my neighborhood relationships, and also that ...”