Language Quote by Toni Morrison

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

Toni Morrison

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.8 out of 5 (3 ratings)

More by Toni Morrison

Perhaps that's what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?

Toni Morrison

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 no meaning. For loneliness assumed the absence of other people, and the solitude she found in that desperate terrain had never admitted the possibility of other people. She wept then. Tears for the deaths of the…

Toni Morrison

In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

Toni Morrison

Image

“Not know it was hard;knowing it was harder”

Toni Morrison

Image

“Didn’t everything on God’s earth have or acquire defense?”

Toni Morrison

Image

If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you.

Toni Morrison

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

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 never named him. Had called him "my parrot" all these years. "My parrot." "Love you. "Love you." Did the dogs get him? Or did he get the message - that she said, "My parrot" and he…

Toni Morrison

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

Image

“To Sethe, the future was a matter of keeping the past at bay”

Toni Morrison

Image

“Hate does that. Burns off everything but itself, so whatever your grievance is, your face looks just like your enemy's.”

Toni Morrison

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, it’s not a twinkle, it’s more like a throb. Star throbs. Over and over and over. Like this. Stars just throb and throb and throb and sometimes, when they can’t throb anymore, when they can’t hold…

Toni Morrison

Explore all 775 Toni Morrison quotes

More Language quotes

I put myself in the student's place and remember the frustrations, doubts, determination, and desires I felt when I was going through the initial…

Ted Martinez

Image

Usually male directors have to use foul language to get the job done. But I never came down to that level as being a…

Divya Khosla Kumar

Image

A man walks down the street. It's a street in a strange world. Maybe it's the third world. Maybe it's his first time around. He doesn't speak the language. He holds no currency. He is a foreign man. He is surrounded by the sound, sound of cattle in the marketplace, scatterlings and orphanages. He looks around, around he sees angels…

Paul Simon

“I only have two words to say More or Less”

TimBur

Image

It's like saying French shouldn't be taught because you don't understand it because it's new. Shakespeare is just like learning a new, exciting language.

Samuel Barnett

Image

I am attracted to looking at the different things language can mean even in one sometimes quite ordinary utterance. Writing is partly about listening closely to yourself as you think or compose and being aware of the different tensions and weights among the words, the different directions any one of them could lead. I like to play with the multiplicity…

Rae Armantrout