"I am deliberate and afraid of nothing"
About this Quote
“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing” is a line that refuses the two traps so often set for marginalized speakers: be palatable or be punished. Lorde’s “deliberate” signals craft, not caution. It’s a declaration that her choices are intentional - political, aesthetic, erotic, intellectual - made with full awareness of the costs. The grammar matters: “I am” doesn’t argue, it asserts. No hedging, no permission-seeking. She isn’t promising to be fearless in some superhero sense; she’s naming a posture, a practiced stance toward a world that would prefer her improvising, apologizing, or shrinking.
The subtext is that fear is not just an emotion here, it’s a social technology. In Lorde’s America - shaped by racism, sexism, homophobia, and the policing of Black women’s anger - fear is the expected response, the leash. Saying she’s “afraid of nothing” is a refusal of that leash, an affront to respectability politics and the idea that survival requires silence. It’s also a quiet rebuke to the liberal fantasy that change comes from civility alone: deliberateness can be sharp.
Contextually, Lorde’s work turns personal testimony into strategy. She wrote about cancer, motherhood, desire, rage, coalition - not as confessional decoration but as evidence. The line reads like a vow spoken in the mirror before walking into a room built to dismiss you. Deliberate: she will choose her words. Afraid of nothing: she will not let the consequences choose her life.
The subtext is that fear is not just an emotion here, it’s a social technology. In Lorde’s America - shaped by racism, sexism, homophobia, and the policing of Black women’s anger - fear is the expected response, the leash. Saying she’s “afraid of nothing” is a refusal of that leash, an affront to respectability politics and the idea that survival requires silence. It’s also a quiet rebuke to the liberal fantasy that change comes from civility alone: deliberateness can be sharp.
Contextually, Lorde’s work turns personal testimony into strategy. She wrote about cancer, motherhood, desire, rage, coalition - not as confessional decoration but as evidence. The line reads like a vow spoken in the mirror before walking into a room built to dismiss you. Deliberate: she will choose her words. Afraid of nothing: she will not let the consequences choose her life.
Quote Details
| Topic | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Source | Evidence: I am deliberate and afraid of nothing. (Poem: "New Year's Day" (page number not verified in a scan)). Primary-source identification: The Academy of American Poets (not a quote-compilation site) states that the line “I am deliberate / and afraid / of nothing” comes from Audre Lorde’s poem “New Year’s Day.” ([poets.org](https://poets.org/academy-american-poets/i-am-deliberate?utm_source=openai)). The earliest clearly-documented publication container I could verify via library catalog data is Lorde’s poetry collection From a Land Where Other People Live (Broadside Press, 1973), which includes “New year’s day” in its contents list. ([search.worldcat.org](https://search.worldcat.org/title/From-a-land-where-other-people-live/oclc/799849?utm_source=openai)). About “FIRST published or spoken”: Several secondary sources claim the poem is dated 1970, but I did not find a verifiable primary publication (magazine appearance, broadside, or recording) from 1970 that I could cite as the *first* publication. Without a digitized scan or a reliable archival record showing an earlier appearance, the earliest *verifiable* publication is the 1973 Broadside Press book. Page number/chapter: I could not access a scanned copy of the 1973 Broadside Press edition in the sources I retrieved, so I cannot responsibly give the page number for that edition. (A bookseller/table-of-contents listing for the later Collected Poems indicates “New Year’s Day” appears on p. 71 there, but that is a 1997 compilation, not first publication.) ([cincinnatistate.ecampus.com](https://cincinnatistate.ecampus.com/collected-poems-audre-lorde-reprint-lorde/bk/9780393319729?utm_source=openai)). Other candidates (1) The Book of Positive Quotations (Steve Deger, Leslie Ann Gibson, 2024) compilation95.0% ... I am deliberate and afraid of nothing . -Audre Lorde Humor acts to relieve fear . -Dr . William F. 488. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Lorde, Audre. (2026, February 8). I am deliberate and afraid of nothing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-deliberate-and-afraid-of-nothing-34472/
Chicago Style
Lorde, Audre. "I am deliberate and afraid of nothing." FixQuotes. February 8, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-deliberate-and-afraid-of-nothing-34472/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I am deliberate and afraid of nothing." FixQuotes, 8 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-deliberate-and-afraid-of-nothing-34472/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.
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