The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.
TONI MORRISONAs you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.
More Toni Morrison Quotes
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You have to be a little tough, and rely on yourself. And tell people ‘No’.
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You free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.
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It was a fine cry – loud and long – but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
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What’s the world for you if you can’t make it up the way you want it?
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I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can’t teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.
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Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.
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Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.
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To get to a place where you could love anything you chose – not to need permission for desire – well now that was freedom.
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Liberation means you don’t have to be silenced.
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If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.
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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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A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves – a special kind of double.
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All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
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The enemy is not men. The enemy is the concept of patriarchy, the concept of patriarchy as the way to run the world or do things.
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You are your best thing.
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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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I didn’t want to speak for black people. I wanted to speak to and to be among. It’s us.
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If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.
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Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe.
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Perhaps that’s what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?
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I’ve spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.
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I didn’t fall in love, I rose in it.
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The pieces I am, she gather them and gave them back to me in all the right order.
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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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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.
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I get angry about things, then go on and work.
TONI MORRISON