Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I'm losing the definition now of politics. I sort of don't know what that is anymore. People say politically correct, I don't… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I don't want you to write about what you know, because you don't know anything. I don't want to hear about your… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I guess I'm depressed. I don't know. I can't explain it. Part of it is the irritability of being 84, and part… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Isolation, you know, carries the seeds of its own destruction because as times change, other things seep in. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I tell my students one of the most important things they need to know is when they are at their best, creatively.… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
So this is what insanity is. Not goofy behavior, but watching a sudden change in the world you used to know. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Sometimes Joyce is hilarious. I read Finnegans Wake after graduate school and I had the great good fortune of reading it without… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I don't know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I'm a writer in the world. I translate the confusion that I might feel, the dread that I know I feel, moving… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know. And I said they don't know nothing.… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
When you first start writing-and I think it's true for a lot of beginning writers-you're scared to death that if you don't… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
When you stiffen, you know that whatever you stiffen about is very important. The stuff is important, the fear itself is information. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Do they still call it infatuation? That magic ax that chops away the world in one blow, leaving only the couple standing… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I have difficulties with contemporary language. Big difficulties. I counted, you know, something like 160 words have disappeared from the English language… — 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
The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can't even see the… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die… — 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
Some literature is knowledge, some is just data. But if I can get a "happy" ending - which is when for the… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
I know there's some poetry that sort of sounds like daisies, but most of the good poetry is also [political], you can… — 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
