Joy Harjo Quotes

Quotes about:

There is no separation. We are all from the same place. As long as there is respect and acknowledgement of connections, things continue working. When that stops we all die.

Joy Harjo

Long, Connections, Separation

28 Copy quote
Remember that you are all people and that all people are you.

Joy Harjo

Inspirational, Life, Equality

"Remember". Poem by Joy Harjo, 1981.

22 Copy quote
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their families, their histories too. Talk to them, listen to them. They are alive poems.

Joy Harjo

Animal, Tree, Alive

Joy Harjo (2004). “How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975-2002”, p.42, W. W. Norton & Company

32 Copy quote
At least I've had to come to that in my life, to realize that this stuff called failure, this stuff, this debris of historical trauma, family trauma, you know, stuff that can kill your spirit, is actually raw material to make things with and to build a bridge. You can use those materials to build a bridge over that which would destroy you.

Joy Harjo

Bridges, Historical, Stuff

"Joy Harjo's 'Crazy Brave' Path To Finding Her Voice". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. July 9, 2012.

37 Copy quote
If you do not answer the noise and urgency of your gifts, they will turn on you. Or drag you down with their immense sadness at being abandoned.

Joy Harjo

Sadness, Poetry, Answers

40 Copy quote
There is no poetry where there are no mistakes.

Joy Harjo

Mistake

Joy Harjo (2001). “A Map to the Next World: Poems and Tales”, p.81, W. W. Norton & Company

18 Copy quote
True power does not amass through the pain and suffering of others.

Joy Harjo

Inspirational, Pain, Suffering Of Others

18 Copy quote
I can hear the sizzle of newborn stars, and know anything of meaning, of the ﬁerce magic emerging here. I am witness to ﬂexible eternity, the evolving past, and I know we will live forever, as dust or breath in the face of stars, in the shifting pattern of winds.

Joy Harjo

Stars, Past, Dust

23 Copy quote
I've always had a theory that some of us are born with nerve endings longer than our bodies

Joy Harjo

Funny, Humorous, Musician

Joy Harjo (1990). “In Mad Love and War”, p.21, Wesleyan University Press

56 Copy quote
My generation is now the door to memory. That is why I am remembering.

Joy Harjo

Memories, Doors, Generations

47 Copy quote
Remember that you are this universe and that this universe is you.

Joy Harjo

Remember, Universe

10 Copy quote
A story matrix connects all of us.
There are rules, processes, and circles of responsibility in this world. And the story begins exactly where it is supposed to begin. We cannot skip any part.

Joy Harjo

Responsibility, Circles, Stories

33 Copy quote
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.

Joy Harjo

Sweet, Laughing, Kitchen

"The Woman Who Fell From the Sky". Book by Joy Harjo, www.npr.org. 1994.

27 Copy quote
It's important as a writer to do my art well and do it in a way that is powerful and beautiful and meaningful, so that my work regenerates the people, certainly Indian people, and the earth and the sun. And in that way we all continue forever.

Joy Harjo

Beautiful, Meaningful, Art

17 Copy quote
The saxophone is so human. Its tendency is to be rowdy, edgy, talk too loud, bump into people, say the wrong words at the wrong time, but then, you take a breath all the way from the center of the earth and blow. All that heartache is forgiven. All that love we humans carry makes a sweet, deep sound and we fly a little.

Joy Harjo

Sweet, Blow, People

FaceBook post by Joy Harjo from Mar 05, 2013

51 Copy quote
I know I walk in and out of several worlds each day.

Joy Harjo

Each Day, World, Walks

6 Copy quote
It is memory that provides the heart with impetus, fuels the brain, and propels the corn plant from seed to fruit.

Joy Harjo

Memories, Heart, Brain

12 Copy quote
But come here, Fear. / I am alive! / And you are so afraid / of dying.

Joy Harjo

Dying, Alive, I Am Alive

"I Give You Back". Poem by Joy Harjo,

21 Copy quote
I was born with eyes that can never close.

Joy Harjo

Eye, Born

"Crazy Brave: A Memoir". Book by Joy Harjo, www.npr.org. July 9, 2012.

3 Copy quote
I have more questions than answers in this world as do most poets and writers. The field of memory we exist in is absolutely encompassing and is both a question and answer. It is memory that provides the heart with impetus, fuels the brain, and propels the corn plant from seed to fruit.

Joy Harjo

Memories, Heart, Brain

11 Copy quote
I believe that poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won't work.

Joy Harjo

Believe, Poetry, I Believe

Joy Harjo, Laura Coltelli (1996). “The spiral of memory: interviews”, Univ of Michigan Pr

3 Copy quote
Someone accompanies every soul from the other side when it enters this place. Usually it is an ancestor with whom that child shares traits and gifts

Joy Harjo

Children, Soul, Sides

13 Copy quote
My father told me that some voices are so true they can be used as weapons, can maneuver the weather, change time. He said that a voice that powerful can walk away from the singer if it is shamed. After my father left us, I learned that some voices can deceive you. There is a top layer and there is a bottom, and they don't match.

Joy Harjo

Powerful, Father, Weather

13 Copy quote
If we cry more tears we will ruin the land with salt; instead let's praise that which would distract us with despair. Make a song for death, a song for yellow teeth and bad breath

Joy Harjo

Song, Land, Yellow

16 Copy quote
I listen to the gunfire we cannot hear, and begin this journey with the light of knowing the root of my own furious love.

Joy Harjo

Journey, Light, Roots

Joy Harjo (1990). “In Mad Love and War”, p.25, Wesleyan University Press

10 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Leslie Marmon Silko

Rita Dove

N. Scott Momaday

Sandra Cisneros

Paula Gunn Allen

Joy Harjo

Follow

Born: May 9, 1951
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

Popular Topics