Quotessence
Home / Authors / Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleKnowsWritingThinkingWorldBlackBelovedChildrenLoveMenLanguageNeedsWaySlaveryArtWantLittlesFreedomMean

Famous Toni Morrison Quotes

“Do they still call it infatuation? That magic ax that chops away the world in one blow, leaving only the couple standing there trembling? Whatever they call it, it leaps over anything, takes the biggest chair, the largest slice, rules the ground wherever it walks, from a mansion to a swamp, and its selfishness is its beauty.... People with no imagination feed it with sex -- the clown of love. They don't know the real kinds, the better kinds, where losses are cut and everybody benefits. It takes a certain intelligence to love like that -- softly, without props.”

PeopleKnowsWorldLoveKindStillsRealCertainSexImaginationLossWalksCuttingMagicCoupleBenefitsStandingLeavingBlowSelfishnessChairsLeapInfatuationClownTremblingPropsMansionsSwampsStanding There
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“Two parents can't raise a child any more than one. You need a whole community - everybody - to raise a child. And the little nuclear family is a paradigm that just doesn't work. It doesn't work for white people or for black people. Why are we hanging onto it, I don't know. It isolates people into little units - people need a larger unit.”

PeopleKnowsNeedsChildrenLittlesTwoWholeParentBlackCommunityWhiteFamilyRaisesNuclearWorking ItBlack PeopleUnitsParadigmNuclear Families
Book:Conversations with Toni Morrison
Create image

“I tell my students one of the most important things they need to know is when they are at their best, creatively. They need to ask themselves, What does the ideal room look like? Is there music? Is there silence? Is there chaos outside or is there serenity outside? What do I need in order to release my imagination?”

KnowsNeedsLooksDoeImportantOrderAsksImaginationRoomsSilenceStudentsMusic IsIdealsImportant ThingsChaosReleaseSerenitySilence IsMy Imagination
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“Sometimes Joyce is hilarious. I read Finnegans Wake after graduate school and I had the great good fortune of reading it without any help. I don't know if I read it right, but it was hilarious! I laughed constantly! I didn't know what was going on for whole blocks but it didn't matter because I wasn't going to be graded on it. I think the reason why everyone still has so much fun with Shakespeare is because he didn't have any literary critic. He was just doing it; and there were no reviews except for people throwing stuff on stage. He could just do it.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsStillsSometimesMatterReasonWholeHelpingSchoolReadingFunStuffStageFortuneCriticsBlockReason WhyReviewsThrowingLaughedGraduatesGood FortuneJust Do ItGraduate SchoolJoyceFinnegans Wake
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“Some literature is knowledge, some is just data. But if I can get a "happy" ending - which is when for the characters I'm writing about, something happens that they move from wherever they are in the beginning to knowledge or wisdom, they know something they never would have acknowledged or realized if it hadn't been for my book - that for me is what literature does.”

IfsKnowsWritingDoeI CanBookCharacterHappensMovingLiteratureThings HappenDataHappy Endings
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“Evil is not interesting. What is it, chopping off someone's head? We used to do that as kids, you know, you tear up paper dolls and stuff. I know everyone's done it in the history of the world, but maybe everybody was dumb and they were just looking for something interesting to do. What's really interesting and hard is being good.”

KnowsWorldHardDoneKidsUsedEvilStuffInterestingTearsPaperBe GoodDumbWorld HistoryDollsReally InterestingSomething InterestingChopping
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“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.”

KnowsMenGivingMindOrderFriendshipPiecesTruthfulReal FriendsMy FriendshipOne Line FriendshipBest FriendshipFriendship DayHappy FriendshipFriendship GardenHappy Friendship DayWho Your Real Friends AreBeing A Good FriendLiterary LoveEasy FriendshipGood FriendshipNice FriendNice Friendship
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn't love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.”

PeopleKnowsSelfCountryFallBornForgetCitiesForeverStreetsMinutesStrongerTrainFalling In LoveWideStationsGlimpseLampsLightingFerryTrain Stations
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“It hit her like a sledgehammer, and it was then that she knew what to feel. A liquid trail of hate flooded her chest. Knowing that she would hate him long and well filled her with pleasant anticipation, like when you know you are going to fall in love with someone and you wait for the happy signs. Hating BoyBoy, she could get on with it, and have the safety, the thrill, the consistency of that hatred as long as she wanted or needed it to define and strengthen her or protect her from routine vulnerabilities.”

KnowsFeelsWellsLongWantedHateFallWaitingKnowingNeededProtectHatredSafetyFilledFalling In LoveVulnerabilityPleasantChestsRoutineAnticipationConsistencyThrillTrailsLiquidHate Him
Book:Sula
Create image

“Nothing could be taken for granted. Women who loved you tried to cut your throat, while women who didn't even know your name scrubbed your back. Witches could sound like Katharine Hepburn and your best friend could try to strangle you. Smack in the middle of an orchid there might be a blob of jello and inside a Mickey Mouse doll, a fixed and radiant star.”

KnowsTryingMightNamesStarsSoundTakenCuttingMiddleGrantedFixedWitchThroatMiceDollsRadiantYour Best FriendTaken For GrantedSmackMickeyHepburnOrchidsJello
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“Where do you get the right to decide our lives? I'll tell you where. From that little hog's gut that hangs between your legs. Well, let me tell you something... you will need more than that. I don't know where you will get it or who will give it to you, but mark my words, you will need more than that.... You are a sad, pitiful, stupid, selfish, hateful man. I hope your little hog's gut stands you in good stead, and you take good care of it, because you don't have anything else.”

KnowsMenNeedsGivingWellsLittlesCareOur LivesStupidLet MeMarkLegsSelfishGutsHatefulPitifulHog
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image

“When you first start writing-and I think it's true for a lot of beginning writers-you're scared to death that if you don't get that sentence right that minute it's never going to show up again. And it isn't. But it doesn't matter-another one will, and it'll probably be better. And I don't mind writing badly for a couple of days because I know I can fix it-and fix it again and again and again, and it will be better.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWritingMindFirstsI CanMatterShowsMinutesCoupleScaredSentencesAgain And AgainBeginning Writers
Book:What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction
Create image

“All the time, I'm afraid the thing that happened that made it all right for my mother to kill my sister could happen again. I don't know what it is, I don't know who it is, but maybe there is something else terrible enough to make her do it again. I need to know what that thing might be, but I don't want to. Whatever it is, it comes from outside this house, outside the yard, and it can come right on in the yard if it wants to. So I never leave this house and I watch over the yard, so it can't happen again and my mother won't have to kill me too.”

IfsKnowsWantNeedsMadeEnoughMightHappensMotherHouseWatchesHappenedTerribleMade ItBelovedMy SisterYardsKill Me
Author:Toni Morrison
Create image