For several years, while I searched for, found, and studied black women writers, I deliberately shut O'Connor out, feeling almost ashamed that she had reached me first. And yet, even when I no longer read her, I missed her, and realized that though the rest of America might not mind, having endured it so long, I would never be satisfied with a segregated literature. I would have to read Zora Hurston and Flannery O'Connor, Nella Larsen and Carson McCullers, Jean Toomer and William Faulkner, before I could begin to feel well read at all. Alice Walker
About This Quote

In this quote, Alice Walker is speaking about race relations and discrimination. For several years, while she searched for, found, and studied black women writers, she deliberately shut O'Connor out. Yet even when she no longer reads her, she misses her. She realizes that though the rest of America might not mind them being segregated as writers, she would never be satisfied with a segregated literature. She would have to read Zora Hurston and Flannery O'Connor, Nella Larsen and Carson McCullers, Jean Toomer and William Faulkner before she felt well read at all.

Source: In Search Of Our Mothers Gardens: Womanist Prose

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