A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.
TONI MORRISONA writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.
TONI MORRISONPassion is never enough; neither is skill.
TONI MORRISONYou don’t have to love me but you damn well have to respect me.
TONI MORRISONYou have to be a little tough, and rely on yourself. And tell people ‘No’.
TONI MORRISONHe can’t value you more than you value yourself.
TONI MORRISONIn times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent. This is precisely the time when artists go to work.
TONI MORRISONThe ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.
TONI MORRISONMisery don’t call ahead. That’s why you have to stay awake – otherwise it just walks on in your door.
TONI MORRISONThere is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race – scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct, it has a social function, racism.
TONI MORRISONThere is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.
TONI MORRISONI’ve spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.
TONI MORRISONAll important things are hard.
TONI MORRISONYou free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.
TONI MORRISONWhen there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.
TONI MORRISONDon’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.
TONI MORRISONLove is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.
TONI MORRISON