All Toni Morrison Quotes
- Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form. African American
- I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it. According
- If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. Air
- I don't think a female running a house is a problem, a broken family. It's perceived as one because of the notion that a head… Broken
- I get angry about things, then go on and work. Anger
- Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all. All
- We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. Communication
- I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it. First Novel
- In becoming an American, from Europe, what one has in common with that other immigrant is contempt for me-it's nothing else but color. American
- Make a difference about something other than yourselves. Difference
- There is really nothing more to say-except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how. Difficult
- For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event. Black
- It's been mentioned or suggested that Paradise will not be well studied, because it's about this unimportant intellectual topic, which is religion. Been
- The body is ready to have babies. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can… Babies
- There is nothing of any consequence in education, in the economy, in city planning, in social policy that does not concern black people. Any
- I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, from the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that… Absorb
- Everybody gets everything handed to them. The rich inherit it. I don't mean just inheritance of money. I mean what people take for granted among… Among
- Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run… Amount
- Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems… All
- The unflattering reviews are painful for short periods of time; the badly written ones are deeply, deeply insulting. That reviewer took no time to really… Badly
- Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war. Been
- Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it. Articulation
- I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort. Aspect
- I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway. Anything Anyway
- Schools must stop being holding pens to keep energetic young people off the job market and off the streets. We stretch puberty out a long,… Energetic