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
dark night bird
More than fear of loving bears or birds bigger than cows, I fear pathless nights. How, I wonder, can I find you in the dark?
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.
lying vitality language
The vitality of language lies in its ability to limn the actual, imagined and possible lives of its speakers, readers, writers.
creating narrative revolutionary
Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created.
black black-women touchstones
Black women are the touchstone by which all that is human can be measured.
important hard important-things
All important things are hard.
night thinking sky
...the City is what they want it to be: thriftless, warm, scary and full of amiable strangers. No wonder they forget pebbly creeks and when they do not forget the sky completely think of it as a tiny piece of information about the time of day or night.
unmotivated
Which was what love was: unmotivated respect.
obliged
You free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.
war arrogance slavery
Language can never 'pin down' slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so. Its force, its felicity, is in its reach toward the ineffable.
white people knees
If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, then you have a serious problem. And white people have a very, very serious problem.
sexy writing too-much-information
Sex is difficult to write about because it's just not sexy enough. The only way to write about it is not to write much. Let the reader bring his own sexuality into the text. A writer I usually admire has written about sex in the most off-putting way. There is just too much information.