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
country believe white
A lot of black people believe that Jews in this country have become white. They behave like white people rather than Jewish people.
children people ifs
My children are delightful people, whom I would love even if they weren't my children.
peace ties diversity
If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.
color europe becoming
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.
bully ignorant racist
Unpersecuted, unjailed, unharrassed writers are trouble for the ignorant bully, the sly racist, and the predators feeding off the world's resources.
couple writing thinking
I think being an editor really helped me take other people's notes on my writing. I'd get a note like 'It's too wet' or 'The first couple chapters are good, but then the rest of the pages were so wet that they were completely illegible' or 'Did you dip this in Sprite? This smells like Sprite. Why would you dip your novel in Sprite?' And instead of pushing back, I'd listen. That's an incredibly important skill for a young writer to have.
son men wells
A man ain't nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that's somebody
ifs
If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more.
ajax littles achilles
We read about how Ajax and Achilles will die for each other, but very little about the friendship of women.
beautiful hurt book
All the books that were being published by African-American guys were saying 'screw whitey', or some variation of that. Not the scholars but the pop books. And the other thing they said was, 'You have to confront the oppressor.' I understand that. But you don't have to look at the world through his eyes. I'm not a stereotype; I'm not somebody else's version of who I am. And so when people said at that time black is beautiful – yeah? Of course. Who said it wasn't? So I was trying to say, in The Bluest Eye, wait a minute. Guys. There was a time when black wasn't beautiful. And you hurt.
brother children gun
Listening to the doves in Alfred, Georgia, and having neither the right nor the permission to enjoy it because in that place mist, doves, sunlight, copper dirt, moon-everything belonged to the men who had the guns. . . . So you protected yourself and loved small. . . . A woman, a child, a brother-a big love like that would split you wide open in Alfred, Georgia. . . . To get to a place where you could love anything you chose-not to need permission for desire-well now, that was freedom
running men enemy
The enemy is not men. The enemy is the concept of patriarchy, the concept of patriarchy as the way to run the world or do things.
hard-work creativity hatred
Like friendship, hatred needed more than physical intimacy; it wanted creativity and hard work to sustain itself
eye eden love-at-first-sight
You looked at me then like you knew me, and I thought it really was Eden, and I couldn't take your eyes in because I was loving the hoof marks on your cheeks.