Toni Morrison Quotes

American - Novelist Born: February 18, 1931

If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. - Toni Morrison

If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. Toni Morrison

Could, Air, Ride

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison

Been, Read, Book

Make a difference about something other than yourselves. Toni Morrison

Other, Than, About

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. Toni Morrison

Other, Chain, Confined

Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another. Toni Morrison

Claiming, Freeing, Ownership

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

Self, Imagine, Test

Somebody has to take responsibility for being a leader. Toni Morrison

Take, Leader, Being A Leader

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. Toni Morrison

Die, Measure, May

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. Toni Morrison

Some, Beauty, Need

I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it. Toni Morrison

Other, Entangled, Work

I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway. Toni Morrison

Literary, About, Thinking

She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind. Toni Morrison

Friendship, Woman, Back

When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same. Toni Morrison

Pain, Same, Words

I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, from the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient about such people. Toni Morrison

Always, Other, Thought

Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all. Toni Morrison

Love, Love Is, Thin

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

Country, Jewish People, Like

Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it. Toni Morrison

Ever, Been, Expand

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

Consequence, Education, City

No one ever talks about the moment you found that you were white. Or the moment you found out you were black. That's a profound revelation. The minute you find that out, something happens. You have to renegotiate everything. Toni Morrison

Revelation, About, Black

I get angry about things, then go on and work. Toni Morrison

Get, Anger, Work

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

Always, Everybody, Smiling

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate. Toni Morrison

Country, Means, Everybody

As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think. Toni Morrison

Trust, Think, Dream

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

Been, Read, Book

My children are delightful people, whom I would love even if they weren't my children. Toni Morrison

Children, Love, Would

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

Broken, Think, House

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