The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one.
TONI MORRISONYou have to be a little tough, and rely on yourself. And tell people ‘No’.
More Toni Morrison Quotes
-
-
Your life is already artful-waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art.
TONI MORRISON -
Today is always here,’ said Sethe. ‘Tomorrow, never.
TONI MORRISON -
There is an incredible amount of magic and feistiness in black men that nobody has been able to wipe out. But everybody has tried.
TONI MORRISON -
Anything dead coming back to life hurts.
TONI MORRISON -
Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.
TONI MORRISON -
I didn’t fall in love, I rose in it.
TONI MORRISON -
When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.
TONI MORRISON -
He wants to put his story next to hers.
TONI MORRISON -
I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are.
TONI MORRISON -
If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.
TONI MORRISON -
You need a whole community to raise a child. I have raised two children, alone.
TONI MORRISON -
A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.
TONI MORRISON -
There’s a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If you write for a living, you make enormous compromises. If you write for life, you’ll work hard; you’ll do what’s honest, not what pays.
TONI MORRISON -
Writing is really a way of thinking–not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.
TONI MORRISON -
I didn’t want to speak for black people. I wanted to speak to and to be among. It’s us.
TONI MORRISON -
If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.
TONI MORRISON -
To get to a place where you could love anything you chose – not to need permission for desire – well now that was freedom.
TONI MORRISON -
A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.
TONI MORRISON -
Love is never any better than the lover.
TONI MORRISON -
Black people’s music is in a class by itself and always has been.
TONI MORRISON -
Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
TONI MORRISON -
The pieces I am, she gather them and gave them back to me in all the right order.
TONI MORRISON -
It was a fine cry – loud and long – but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
TONI MORRISON -
A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves – a special kind of double.
TONI MORRISON -
She learned the intricacy of loneliness: the horror of color, the roar of soundlessness and the menace of familiar objects lying still.
TONI MORRISON -
As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.
TONI MORRISON