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
art discipline imagination
In a way, her strangeness, her naiveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination. Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings, had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like an artist with no art form, she became dangerous.
inspiration writing ifs
I can't explain inspiration. A writer is either compelled to write or not. And if I waited for inspiration I wouldn't really be a writer.
responsibility leader taking-responsibility
Somebody has to take responsibility for being a leader.
hurt beloved coming-back
Anything dead coming back to life hurts.
baby writing way
I write the way women have babies. You don't know it's going to be like that. If you did, there's no way you would go through with it.
real believe artist
I don't believe any real artists have ever been non-political. They may have been insensitive to this particular plight or insensitive to that, but they were political, because that's what an artist is-a politician.
writing people want
People say to write about what you know. I'm here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don't know anything. So write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.
self tests strange
The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.
friendship beautiful real-friends
The pieces I am, she gather them and gave them back to me in all the right order.
responsibility hands bird
I don't know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands.
writing ideas answers
I always start out with an idea, even a boring idea, that becomes a question I don't have answers to.
writing firsts novel
I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.
passion skills enough
Passion is never enough; neither is skill.
pain writing imagination
The writing is - I'm free from pain. It's the place where I live; it's where I have control; it's where nobody tells me what to do; it's where my imagination is fecund and I am really at my best. Nothing matters more in the world or in my body or anywhere when I'm writing.