The pieces I am, she gather them and gave them back to me in all the right order.
TONI MORRISONIf you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.
More Toni Morrison Quotes
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Misery don’t call ahead. That’s why you have to stay awake – otherwise it just walks on in your door.
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Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.
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Racism will disappear when it’s no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it’ll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con.
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A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.
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If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, then you have a serious problem. And white people have a very, very serious problem.
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When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.
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Lonely was much better than alone.
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You free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.
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At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough.
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Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don’t feel safe.
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For me the history of the place of black people in this country is so varied, complex and beautiful. And impactful.
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In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent. This is precisely the time when artists go to work.
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Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.
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Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
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If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.
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Navigating a white male world was not threatening. It wasn’t even interesting. I was more interesting than they were.
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He can’t value you more than you value yourself.
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Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.
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A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.
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I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are.
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As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.
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Anything dead coming back to life hurts.
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The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one.
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All important things are hard.
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There 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.
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Passion is never enough; neither is skill.
TONI MORRISON