Julius Lester: History is also a Pain in the Heart

“History is not just facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history until we are able to make another's pain in the heart our own.”
― Julius Lester

“Being a failure at living your own life as best as you can is better than being a success living the life somebody else says you should live.”
― Julius Lester, Guardian

“Some wounds go so deep that you don't even feel them until months, maybe years, later.”
― Julius Lester, When Dad Killed Mom

“It ain't how long you know somebody that means anything. It's what that person mean to you in your heart.”
― Julius Lester, Day of Tears

“Dying ain't important. Everyone does that. What's important is how well you do your living.”
― Julius Lester

“Books, and especially fiction, do not proceed from ideas. They are born from feelings ”
― Julius Lester, When Dad Killed Mom

“Stagolee was, undoubtedly and without question, the baddest nigger that ever lived. Stagolee was so bad that the flies wouldn't even fly around his head in the summertime, and snow wouldn't fall on his house in the winter. He was bad, Jim. ”
― Julius Lester, Black Folktales