10 Alice Walker Quotes for Writers and About Writing

Here are 10 Alice Walker quotes for writers and about writing from the author of The Color Purple, Collected Poems, and We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For. In these quotes, Walker covers writing, publishing, living, and more.

Alice Walker is an American novelist, poet, and activist. A few of her titles include The Color Purple, Collected Poems, and We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For. She has received a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, National Book Award, O. Henry Award, and many other awards and honors.

(For the Love of Libraries.)

She's had more than 30 books published in multiple genres, and says, "I feel that I need to write what comes to me, as this particular person—and if I am patient enough, and if I meditate enough, and if I take enough long walks, and if I just do nothing but basically stay open, that the genre actually will form itself to suit whatever the subject is that arrives."

Here are 10 Alice Walker quotes for writers and about writing from the October 2010 issue of Writer's Digest magazine.

"Am I supposed to say, well, one plum is better than all the others, and that I would rather just have that one? No, no, no, no. They're all on the tree, they all look pretty good, and some of them are shaped a little differently, but that's just how they are."

"For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone life, just really being present to a lot of life."

"I think there's a tendency to fear huge, horrid subjects."

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"In hard times, we are advised by all wise people to look to the margins of a culture, not the center."

"It's amazing that it never seems like work. It's hard work and then, in a way, when I look back I can't even remember how it was done."

"It's an awful feeling to write something that you feel is really important ... and to feel that you're being published by people who really don't get it and/or don't really care."

"Part of writing is not so much that you're going to actually write something every day, but what you should have, or need to have, is the possibility, which means the space and time set aside—as if you were going to have someone come to tea.'"

(Everyday vs. Every Day.)

"The most healthy thing is to be true to your own self, but also, that you have a right to express what you see and what you feel and what you think. To be bold."

"Writing is not different from life—you want variety, you want refreshment, and you want balance."

"Your caring is actually part of what you are offering: I care, and therefore I offer this."