Toni Morrison
Nobel laureate exploring African American experience
Most quoted
"Anger...it's a paralyzing emotion...you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling—I don't think it's any of that—it's helpless...it's absence of control—and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers...and anger doesn't provide any of that—I have no use for it whatsoever."
— from Interview
"I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.'"
— from Interview with Oprah Winfrey, 2003
"You are your own stories and therefore are free to invent and imagine what you cannot believe, and you are therefore the guides and the tricksters, the evaders and the illusionists, the musicians and the conjurers that are your own best destiny."
— from The Dancing Mind, 1996
All quotes by Toni Morrison (319)
The world is full of stories, and it's our job to tell them.
Racism is a construct, a social invention.
Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up.
I am my own best critic.
Writing is a solitary act, but it's also a communal one.
The beauty of the world lies in its diversity.
Don't be afraid to take risks. That's where the magic happens.
The human heart is a complex and mysterious thing.
I write because I have to. It's not a choice.
The greatest gift you can give someone is your attention.
History is not just about facts. It's about interpretation.
The power of language is to create worlds.
To be truly free, you must first free your mind.
I am not a political writer. I am a human writer.
The world needs more stories of joy and resilience.
Every word matters. Every sentence counts.
The past is a lesson, not a prison.
Writing is a way of remembering, of honoring the dead.
The greatest challenge is to remain human in an inhumane world.
Silence can be a form of violence.
Contemporaries of Toni Morrison
Other Literatures born within 50 years of Toni Morrison (1931–2019).