Play the game, but don’t believe in it—that much you owe yourself.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Play But Don’t Believe
P
Reaffirmation for Understanding
R
I feel the need to reaffirm all of it, to reexperience it and, by reexperiencing it, to understand it, to understand myself.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Loss Through Expectation
L
What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Willful Blindness
W
The world is full of people who are blind because they will not see.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
America’s Diverse Strands
A
America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Voice for the Invisible
V
I speak for the invisible victims of America’s prosperity.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Hatred for Honesty
H
I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Burden of Memory
B
Too much to remember, too much to live.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Questioning Conformity
Q
Whence all this passion toward conformity anyway?—diversity is the word.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man
Lost Place, Lost Self
L
Perhaps to lose a sense of where you are implies the danger of losing a sense of who you are.
Ralph Ellison – The Invisible Man