Any woman who wishes to be an intellectual, to write non-fiction, to deal with theory, faces a lot of discrimination coming her way and perhaps even self-doubt because there aren't that many who've gone before you. And I think that the most powerful tool we can have is to be clear about our intent. To know what it is we want to do rather than going into institutions thinking that the institution is going to frame for us.
Bell HooksEven when people capitalize my name, I don't freak out, even though that would not be my choice.
Bell HooksWriting is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic. The root understanding of the word ecstasyโโto stand outsideโโcomes to me in those moments when I am immersed so deeply in the act of thinking and writing that everything else, even flesh, falls away.
Bell HooksFor most people, what is so painful about reading is that you read something and you don't have anybody to share it with. In part what the book club opens up is that people can read a book and then have someone else to talk about it with. Then they see that a book can lead to the pleasure of conversation, that the solitary act of reading can actually be a part of the path to communion and community.
Bell HooksWhen we concentrate on photography, we make it possible to see the walls of photographs in black homes as a critical intervention, a disruption of white control over black images.
Bell Hooks