There’s something about approaching 50 that’s very liberating. Political struggle has always been a 24-hour-a-day job for me. I felt I could never take time out for myself. Now I feel I owe it to myself to develop in ways I’ve been putting off all my life.

— Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur Quotes

I have been a political activist most of my life and many groups have attempted to label me as a criminal because of my outspoken beliefs. I am not a criminal and I have never been one.

— Assata Shakur

People come telling the truth. When I ask how thing are in the States, they don’t give me the okeydoke. They say, “Honey, things are hard.” It reminds me I have to keep struggling.

— Assata Shakur

I miss friends and family. If it weren’t for visits from old friends and other African Americans I meet who come to Cuba, I’d probably be in some kind of time warp.

— Assata Shakur

A lot of contemporary American culture makes its way to this county. Cuba is not some gray, isolated backwater. This is a happening place.

— Assata Shakur

Being in Cuba has allowed me to live in a society that is not at war with itself. There is a sense of community. It’s a given in Cuba that, if you fall down, the person next to you is going to help you get up.

— Assata Shakur

Every person that steps up and commits to social change helps solidify the black movement cause. It is not easy for those who fill in the leader role.

— Assata Shakur

The US government’s most acute fear is that other countries are going to follow the Cuban example. They want everybody to know that if you follow this example we will attack you in every way that we can.

— Assata Shakur

I trust Cuba as a principled country. Cuba’s strength is that it has been steadfast in its commitment to the principles of liberation, freedom, of resistance to the kind of institutionalized terrorism that the United States government does every day.

— Assata Shakur

I worked, studied, mothered and continued to be an activist. I found that Cuba was much different from the US; its government was genuinely trying to erase racism.

— Assata Shakur

I think that one of the great things that the Cuban revolution has done is preserve history.

— Assata Shakur

I really wanted to know what happens in a place that is trying to build socialism, that’s trying to construct some form of social justice. That’s trying to feed people, to make health care and education a right.

— Assata Shakur

Imperialism is the underlying motor of racism. The underlying reason that racism keeps on being promoted in all of its various forms.

— Assata Shakur

When I was a child, if someone had talked to me about buying water, I would have thought it was a joke.

— Assata Shakur

If we are not committed to saving this earth we will be buying designer air filters and gas masks with little Nike swishes on them.

— Assata Shakur

The people who are running this planet are insane – they are literally destroying it. I don’t know where they think they’re gonna drink water, breathe air.

— Assata Shakur

This planet is a wonderful place, but a vulnerable place.

— Assata Shakur

Racism had grown out of slavery and exploitation and was very hard to eradicate quickly and completely.

— Assata Shakur

There is a down side to everything if you don’t understand what the consequences of what you are saying in your music you could possibly end up getting yourself killed or hurting other people because of your carelessness.

— Assata Shakur

I think it’s really hard to plan if you don’t believe you can implement those plans.

— Assata Shakur

The real reason Cuba poses a threat has nothing to do with my being here or anyone else being here. It’s because Cuba is an example of a country that is actively fighting against imperialist domination and insists on its own right to self-determination and sovereignty.

— Assata Shakur
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