Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrisonis an American novelist, editor, and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth18 February 1931
CityLorain, OH
CountryUnited States of America
running book ideas
The idea of a wanton woman is something I have inserted into almost all of my books. An outlaw figure who is disallowed in the community because of her imagination or activity or status - that kind of anarchic figure has always fascinated me. And the benefits they bring with them, in spite of the fact that they are either dismissed or upbraided - something about their presence is constructive in the long run.
patriotic differences humane
The difference between that which is humane and that which is patriotic is a vital difference.
should-have ideas world
The concept of physical beauty as a virtue is one of the dumbest, most pernicious and destructive ideas of the Western world, and we should have nothing to do with it.
ties long use
If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up.
moving eye winter
My daddy's face is a study. Winter moves into it and presides there. His eyes become a cliff of snow threatening to avalanche, his eyebrows bend like black limbs of leafless trees. His skin takes on the pale cheerless yellow of winter sun; for a jaw he has the edges of a snowbound field dotted with stubble; his high forehead is the frozen sweep of the Erie.
art bearing-witness circumstances
Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it, summon it, from even the most tragic of circumstances.
book worthy knows
I know that my books are worthy, which is separate from me.
kids heart rooms
Let your face speak what's in your heart. When my kids walk in the room my face says I'm glad to see them.
humans human-relations human-relationships
Perhaps that's what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?
love country children
She is convinced that when language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, not only she herself, but all users and makers are accountable for its demise. In her country children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the voice of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, providing guidance, or expressing love.
witty children writing
The habit of getting up early, which I had formed when the children were young, now became my choice. I am not very bright or very witty or very inventive after the sun goes down.
hurt everyday scream
The screams of a hurt woman were indistinguishable from everyday traffic.
life positive success
Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.
trying way looks
I'm just trying to look at something without blinking, to see what it is like, or it could have been like, and how that had something to do with the way we live now. Novels are always inquiries for me.