Dorothy Allison
Dorothy Allison
Dorothy Allisonis an American writer from South Carolina whose writing expresses themes of class struggle, sexual abuse, child abuse, feminism and lesbianism. She is a self-identified lesbian femme. She has won a number of awards for her writing, including several Lambda Literary Awards. She was elected in xxxx as a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth11 April 1949
CountryUnited States of America
damn hardest truth wonderful writers
The hardest thing to teach young writers is that it's wonderful to tell your truth. And that's what you should do. But it damn well better be beautiful.
dollars family gave several somebody thousand
If somebody gave you several thousand dollars and nothin' to do but write, would you be a writer then? Would you tell your stories, your family's stories, then?
drama years proud
Twenty years after we had left so fierce and proud, we were all right back where we had started, yoked to each other and the same old drama.
wall pain fall
For years and years, I convinced myself that I was unbreakable, an animal with an animal strength or something not human at all. Me, I told people, I take damage like a wall, a brick wall that never falls down, never feels anything, never flinches or remembers. I am one woman but I carry in my body all the stories I have ever been told, women I have known, women who have taken damage until they tell themselves they can feel no pain at all.
nice writing people
I do not write about nice people. I am not nice people.
survival desire
... survival is the least of my desires.
determination class decision
I put on the page a third look at what I've seen in life - the reinvented experience of a cross-eyed working-class lesbian, addicted to violence, language and hope, who has made the decision to live, is determined to live, on the page and on the street, for me and mine.
healing cracks allison
Change, when it comes, cracks everything open.
people world make-sense
People don't do right because of the fear of God or love of him. You do right because the world doesn't make sense if you don't.
mama scared said
He never said "Don't tell your mama." He never had to say it. I did not know how to tell anyone what I felt, what scared me and shamed me... (109)
friendly balance tongue
she got a reputation for an easy smile and a sharp tongue, and using one to balance the other, she seemed friendly but distant
suicide rivers shame
I fell into shame like a suicide throws herself into a river. (253)
couple memories water
Gravy is the simplest, tastiest, most memory-laden dish I know how to make: a little flour, salt and pepper, crispy bits of whatever meat anchored the meal, a couple of cups of water or milk and slow stirring to break up lumps.
true-friend believe giving
I don't believe that there is any true friendship without a bond of honor, and the honor in friendship is the respect you give the other that she also gives you.