I'm interested in the way in which the past affects the present and I think that if we understand a good deal… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Birth, life, and death― each took place on the hidden side of a leaf. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
There's a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If you write for a living, you make enormous compromises....… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Your life is already artful-waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art. — 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
“And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
From my point of view, your life is already a miracle of chance waiting for you to shape its destiny. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“It's gonna hurt, now," said Amy. "anything dead coming back to life hurts.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
When I'm not creating or focusing on something I can imagine or invent, I think I go back over my life -… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
To get to a place where you could love anything you chose--not to need permission for desire--well now _that_ was freedom. — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“In this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“What she called the nastiness of life was the shock she received upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because the… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Shadrack rose and returned to the cot, where he fell into the first sleep of his new life. A sleep deeper than… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as something artful, waiting, just waiting and… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“And even later, when for the first time in her life she had lain in bed with a man and said his… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“A writer's life and work are not a gift to humankind; they are its necessity.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
Word-work is sublime... because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference-the way in which we are… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
And they beat. The women for having known them and no more, no more; the children for having been them but never… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“Outdoors, we knew, was the real terror of life. The threat of being outdoors surfaced frequently in those days. Every possibility of… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
The Nobel Prize is the best thing that can happen to a writer in terms of how it affects your contracts, the… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“...the flirt whom folks called Life, lead them on. Making them think the next sunrise would be worth it.” — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love… — Toni Morrison Copy Share Image
“It's going to hurt, now," said Amy. "Anything dead coming back to life hurts.” — 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
