Long before I was a success, my parents made me feel like I could be one. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Gather up your loins, daughter. You named Lillian Florence Jones after my mother. A toughter lady never lived. Find your talent and… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I don't think anybody cares about unwed mothers unless they're black or poor. The question is not morality, the question is money.… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I sang "O Holy Night" in a school choir. My mother came and listened to me and complimented me. So that was… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
It was my father who could do no wrong. So I didn't think of it as, oh, look, my father's a violent… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown. In my heart it… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I don't think one parent can raise a child. I don't think two parents can raise a child. You really need the… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
My father saw two black men lynched on his street in Cartersville, as a child. And I think seeing two black businessmen… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I remember a very important lesson that my father gave me when I was twelve or thirteen. He said, "You know, today… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother’s voice took all of the grief out of the words and left… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I remember a very important lesson that my father gave me when I was twelve or thirteen. He said, You know, today… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“She was not only good at housekeeping, she enjoyed it. After her parents left for work and the other children were at… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“florens would sigh then, her head on lina's shoulder and when sleep came the little girl's smiel lingered. mother hunger – to… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“I don't care what she is. Grown don't mean a thing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger,… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Reverend Father is the only kind man I ever see. When I arrive here I believe it is the place he warns… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Sad as it was that she did not know where her children were buried or what they looked like if alive, fact… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
All the time, I'm afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Two parents can't raise a child any more than one. You need a whole community - everybody - to raise a child.… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“I'll tend to her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever get my milk no more except… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
...fact was she knew more about them than she knew about herself, having never had the map to discover what she was… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Let the children come,' and they ran from the trees toward her. 'Let your mothers hear you laugh,' she told them. And… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“I can't tell you how I felt when my father died. But I was able to write Song of Solomon and imagine,… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“It sounded old. Deserve. Old and tired and beaten to death. Deserve. Now it seemed to him that he was always saying… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Perhaps that's what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it? — Toni Morrison Copy Share
There, in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death of time and a loneliness so profound the word itself had… — Toni Morrison Copy Share
If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you. — Toni Morrison Copy Share
“You looked at them and wondered why the were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that… — Toni Morrison Copy Share
All she saw, down in the cellar well beneath the stoop, was a light yellow feather with a tip of green. And she had… — Toni Morrison Copy Share
For me, Art is the restoration of order. It may discuss all sort of terrible things, but there must be satisfaction at the end.… — Toni Morrison Copy Share
“Hate does that. Burns off everything but itself, so whatever your grievance is, your face looks just like your enemy's.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share
“You know how a star is supposed to twinkle? We say twinkle because that is how it looks, but when a star feels itself,… — Toni Morrison Copy Share
My father saw two black men lynched on his street in Cartersville, as a child. And I think seeing two black businessmen - not… — Toni Morrison Copy Share
“She was fierce in the presence of death, heroic even, as she was at no other time. Its threat gave her direction, clarity, audacity.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share
