Ralph Ellison

"It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!"

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Source: Ralph Ellison (2010). “Invisible Man”, p.40, Vintage

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Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison

Novelist, Essayist

Ralph Ellison was an American novelist and essayist, best known for his groundbreaking work 'Invisible Man,' which explores themes of identity and race.

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Ralph Ellison Novelist, Essayist

"If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit."

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