Alden Nowlan Quotations

Offhand, the only North American writers I can think of who have come from a background of rural poverty and gone on to write about it have been Negroes.

The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them, he becomes an adult; the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.

I couldn't help being a part of my race. A race that continued to be tough. It was possible for me to accept myself, finally, only when I realized-emotionally-that poetry is tough too, that a poem can contain as much fury and power as a fist or a blackjack.

My country has no history, only a past.

Growing up is never straight forward. There are moments when everything is fine, and other moments where you realize that there are certain memories that you'll never get back, and certain people that are going to change, and the hardest part is knowing that there's nothing you can do except watch them.

Being a foreigner is not a disease.

I am not a doctrinaire of any kind. I'm still searching. Sometimes I call myself an anarchist, but I know that anarchism is not a final answer. Sometimes I lean toward Marx, but more often I lean toward Ghandi-Tolstoi-Thoreau.