We tend to think of the erotic as an easy, tantalizing sexual arousal. I speak of the erotic as the deepest life force, a force which moves us toward living in a fundamental way.
Interpretation
The erotic is more than just sexual desire; it's a profound force that drives us to live fully and authentically.
In this quote, Audre Lorde explores the concept of the erotic beyond its common perception as mere sexual arousal. She suggests that the erotic represents a deep life force that motivates and inspires individuals to embrace their true selves and live more fundamentally and passionately.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of passion in art and creativity.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
There is no love; there are only proofs of love. Whatever love I might feel in my heart, others will see only my action.
Different phases of your life have different levels of deep, traumatizing heartbreak, and in this period of my life, my heart was not irreparably broken. So it’s not as boy-centric of an album, because my life hasn’t been boy-centric.
As long as the "I" is there, love cannot be. All that we call love is only desire, longing, passion and attachment; as long as ego is there, all these bind one.
I want to fall in love with something in the way I fell in love with the idea of Harry before I write anything else.
When I find a woman attractive, I have nothing at all to say. I simply watch her smile. Intellectuals take apart her face in order to explain it bit by bit, but they no longer see the smile.
The first act of love is always the giving of attention.
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