These are inspirational, motivational, wise, sad and funny Toni Morrison quotes, sayings, and proverbs that inspire us. See more famous quotes on QuoteLicious.
- Full name: Chloe Anthorny Wofford Morrison
- Born: February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, United States
- Died: August 5, 2019 in Montefiore Medical Center Moses Division, New York, United States
- Occupation: novelist, book editor, college professor.
- Books: Beloved (1987), the bluest eye (1970), songs of Solomon (1977), Sula (1973), Jazz (1992)
Toni Morrison quotes about writing, reading, and books
If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. ~Toni Morrison
The unflattering reviews are painful for short periods of time; the badly written ones are deeply, deeply insulting. That reviewer took no time to really read the book. ~Toni Morrison
I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can’t teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort. ~Toni Morrison
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. ~Toni Morrison
Everything I’ve ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it. ~Toni Morrison
I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it. ~Toni Morrison
Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers. ~Toni Morrison
Writing is really a way of thinking – not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet. ~Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison quotes about black people
I’m always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else’s contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we’re demons. ~Toni Morrison
I don’t think anybody cares about unwed mothers unless they’re black or poor. The question is not morality, the question is money. That’s what we’re upset about. ~Toni Morrison
I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes. ~Toni Morrison
For a long time I was convinced that the conflict between Jewish people and black people in this country was a media event. ~Toni Morrison
There is nothing of any consequence in education, in the economy, in city planning, in social policy that does not concern black people. ~Toni Morrison
Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city. ~Toni Morrison
A lot of black people believe that Jews in this country have become white. They behave like white people rather than Jewish people. ~Toni Morrison
Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war. ~Toni Morrison
Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are. ~Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison quotes about nature
All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. ~Toni Morrison
The body is ready to have babies. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it. ~Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison quotes about love
My children are delightful people, whom I would love even if they weren’t my children. ~Toni Morrison
Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love of a free man is never safe. ~Toni Morrison
To get to a place where you could love anything you chose – not to need permission for desire – well now that was freedom. ~Toni Morrison
Something that is loved is never lost. ~Toni Morrison
Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another – physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. ~Toni Morrison
Love is divine only and difficult always. If you think it is easy you are a fool. If you think it is natural you are blind. ~Toni Morrison
Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all. ~Toni Morrison
Don’t ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn’t fall in love, I rose in it. ~Toni Morrison
Inspirational Toni Morrison quotes
You can’t own a human being. You can’t lose what you don’t own. ~Toni Morrison
I’m not entangled in shaping my work according to other people’s views of how I should have done it. ~Toni Morrison
Anything dead coming back to life hurts. ~Toni Morrison
Correct what you can; learn from what you can’t. ~Toni Morrison
I don’t think a female running a house is a problem, a broken family. It’s perceived as one because of the notion that a head is a man. ~Toni Morrison
Hate does that. Burns off everything but itself, so whatever your grievance is, your face looks just like your enemy’s. ~Toni Morrison
Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another. ~Toni Morrison
Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined. ~Toni Morrison
A good man is a good thing, but there is nothing in the world better than a good woman.
She can be your mother, your wife, your girlfriend, your sister, or somebody you work next to. Don’t matter. You find one, stay there. You see a scary one, make tracks. ~Toni Morrison
Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do. ~Toni Morrison
As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think. ~Toni Morrison
Some things you forget. Other things you never do. ~Toni Morrison
Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It’s truly unbelievable. ~Toni Morrison
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