Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“I am Beloved and she is mine. I see her take flowers away from leaves she puts them in a round basket… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Some things you forget. Other things you never do. But it's not. Places, places are still there. If a house burns down,… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Clever, but schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers - not the defined. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Well, feel this, why don't you? Feel how it feels to have a bed to sleep in and somebody there not worrying… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“And in all those escapes he could not help being astonished by the beauty of this land that was not his. He… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Suspended between the nastiness of life and the meanness of the dead, she couldn't get interested in leaving life or living it,… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Good for you. More it hurt more better it is. Can't nothing heal without pain, you know.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Mister was allowed to be and stay what he was. But I wasn't allowed to be and stay what I was [...]… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“If I did I didn't know it. What's it like, velvet?' 'Well, Lu, velvet is like the world was just born. Clean… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“You know, the kind who know Jesus by His first name, but out of politeness never use it even to His face.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Listen up. Let me tell you something. A man ain’t a goddamn ax. Chopping, hacking, busting every goddamn minute of the day.… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“The desire, let alone the gesture,to meet her needs was good enough to loft her spirits to the place where she could… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
One of the monstrous things that slavery in this country caused was the breakup of families. I mean, physical labor, horrible; beatings,… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Rainwater held on to pine needles for dear life and Beloved could not take her eyes off Sethe.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
My first-born. All I can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread. Can you beat that?Eight children… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“It's gonna hurt, now," said Amy. "anything dead coming back to life hurts.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something? — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me. — 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 Image
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 Image
If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
