Cynthia Cooper-Dyke Quotes

In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.

There is, for me, no difference between writing a good poem and moving into sunlight against the body of a woman I love.

It is our dreams that point the way to freedom. Those dreams are made realizable through our poems that give us the strength and courage to see, to feel, to speak, and to dare.

Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged.

The 60s for me was a time of promise and excitement, but the 60s was also a time of isolation and frustration from within. [...] It was a time of great hope and great expectation; it was also a time of great waste. That is history. We do not need to repeat these mistakes in the 80s.

The erotic is not a question only of what we do; it is a question of how acutely and fully we can feel in the doing. Once we know the extent to which we are capable of feeling that sense of satisfaction and completion, we can then observe which of our various life endeavors bring us closest to that fullness.

We are jointly responsible for the care and raising of the young, since that they be raised is a function, ultimately, of the species.

Anger is an appropriate reaction to racist attitudes, as is fury when the actions arising from those attitudes do not change.

When I envision the future, I think of the world I crave for my daughters and my sons. It is thinking for survival of the species — thinking for life.

Heterosexism: The belief in the inherent superiority of one pattern of loving and thereby its right to dominance.

Guilt and defensiveness are bricks in a wall against which we all flounder; they serve none of our futures.

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

The knowledge of fear can help make us free.

As we learn to bear the intimacy of scrutiny and to flourish within it, as we learn to use the products of that scrutiny for power within our living, those fears which rule our lives and form our silences begin to lose their control over us.

The truest direction comes from inside.