"I’m often inspired by the everyday beauty and resilience of black and brown families caught up in deeply challenging circumstances. I wanted to capture this ordinary beauty in its variations and intensity."

David Chariandy Literature See all quotes by David Chariandy →

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“The past is not yet past. When things happen, the only way we can make sense of it is by telling the story about the past – realising where prejudices come from. And the point would be not only to spin a story about racial violence but to tell how our ancestors have bravely and creatively overcome these things.”

“The most important opportunity offered by increased exposure is the chance to focus with greater faith and intensity upon the hard work of writing.”

“Canada, in fact, has had its own legacies of slavery, segregation, state violence, and systemic impoverishment; and Canada, no less than any other site of the African diaspora, boasts brilliant affirmations of Black life and creativity, powerfully “here,” but in complex intercultural and diasporic dialogue with the world.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Throughout this whole trial you've heard a lot about hate and hatred, and how much hatred I’m filled with and how vast my hate was. Well I don't like what black people do. If I was really filled with …"

— Dylann Roof

Politics1994

#justice

"The Virginians are said to pride themselves upon the peculiar tenderness with which they visit the sceptre of authority on their African vassals. As all those acquainted with the character of the Virg…"

— Frances Wright

Social Activism1795–1852

#justice

"I am not a reformer. I think there is entirely too much attempt at reforming in the world and that we pay too much attention to reformers. We have two kinds of reformers. Both are nuisances. The man w…"

— Henry Ford

Business

#knowledge

"We must therefore not be discouraged by the difficulty of interpreting life by the ordinary laws of physics. For that is just what is to be expected from the knowledge we have gained of the structure …"

— Erwin Schrödinger

Science1887–1961

#life