Home / Quotes / Quote by Toni Morrison

Quote by Toni Morrison

“A man ain't nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that's somebody.”

Author

Toni Morrison is an American novelist known for her profound portrayal of the history and culture of African Americans. Her works often explore issues of race, gender, and identity, with her most famous novels being 'The Bluest Eye' and 'Sula'. more

“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.”

Ifs Knows Want Needs Made Enough Might Happens Mother House Watches Happened Terrible Made It Beloved My Sister Yards Kill Me

Author:Toni Morrison

“The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.”

Art Able Beautiful Political Ought Art Is Revolutionary Best Art

Book:What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction

Source: What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction

“I really want some meaning. It used to be easy to toss it off. Now it's harder and harder. You have to navigate just to find something that has nourishment. It's the absence of nourishment. What do you do in place of nourishment? It's usually junk. Either it's junk food or junk clothes or junk ideas.”

Want Ideas Used Easy Clothes Harder Absence Used To Be Junk Nourishment Toss Navigate Junk Food

Author:Toni Morrison

“I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are”

Want Values Decision Safe Discouraging

Author:Toni Morrison

“I don't think we are ready to die, any of us, not without being escorted.”

Thinking Dies Ready Ready To Die

Book:Disgrâce

Source: Disgrâce

“Temperament is fixed, set. The skull, followed by the temperament: the two hardest parts of the body. Follow your temperament. It is not a philosophy, It is a rule, like the Rule of St Benedict.”

Two Philosophy Body Hardest Fixed Temperament Skulls Parts Of The Body St Benedict

Book:Disgrâce

Source: Disgrâce

“My existence from day to day has become a matter of averting my eyes, of cringing. Death is the only truth left. Death is what I cannot bear to think. At every moment when I am thinking of something else, I am not thinking death, am not thinking the truth.”

Thinking Matter Moments Eye Left Existence Bears Day To Day

Book:Age of Iron

Source: Age of Iron

“That has always seemed to me one of the stranger aspects of literary fame: you prove your competence as a writer and an inventor of stories, and then people clamour for you to make speeches and tell them what you think about the world.”

People Thinking World Stories Fame Prove Speech Aspect Stranger Competence Inventor Clamour

Author:J. M. Coetzee

“The mode of consciousness of nonhuman species is quite different from human consciousness.”

Humans Different Consciousness Species Human Consciousness

Author:J. M. Coetzee

“The idea of writer as sage is pretty much dead today. I would certainly feel very uncomfortable in the role.”

Feels Ideas Today Beauty Roles Uncomfortable Sage

Author:J. M. Coetzee

Quote by Toni Morrison

Author

You May Also Like