Toni Morrison

Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty.

Toni Morrison

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

Toni Morrison

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

Toni Morrison

There is really nothing more to say — except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.

Toni Morrison

Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.

Toni Morrison

What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?

Toni Morrison

Women’s rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about “us”; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.

Toni Morrison

You need intelligence, and you need to look. You need a gaze, a wide gaze, penetrating and roving — that’s what’s useful for art.

Toni Morrison