Home / Quotes / Quote by Toni Morrison

Quote by Toni Morrison

“It was my father who could do no wrong. So I didn't think of it as, oh, look, my father's a violent man.”

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

“I lived in a little working-class town that had no black neighborhoods at all - one high school. We all played together. Everybody was either somebody from the South or an immigrant from East Europe or from Mexico. And there was one church, and there were four elementary schools. And we were all, pretty much until the end of the war, very, very poor.”

Littles War Ends School Together Black Church Poor Class Four High School Europe Towns South East Neighborhood Immigrants Mexico Working Class Elementary School

Author:Toni Morrison

“Occasionally, as children, we might figure out how to call somebody a name, and they would figure out how to call us. But it wasn't - it was so light. It was so fluffy. I didn't really have a strong awareness of segregation and the separation of races until I left Lorain, Ohio.”

Children Light Might Names Left Strong Race Awareness Figures Separation Segregation Ohio Fluffy

Author:Toni Morrison

“I thought the whole world was like Lorain.”

World Whole Whole World

Author:Toni Morrison

“My father saw two black men lynched on his street in Cartersville, as a child. And I think seeing two black businessmen - not vagrants - hanging from trees as a child was traumatic for him.”

Thinking Men Children Two Father Black Saws Seeing Tree Streets Businessman Vagrants

Author:Toni Morrison

“I guess I'm depressed. I don't know. I can't explain it. Part of it is the irritability of being 84, and part of it is being not as physically strong as I once was. And part of it is my misunderstanding, I think, of what's going on in the world.”

Thinking Knows World I Can Strong Misunderstanding

Author:Toni Morrison

“When I'm not creating or focusing on something I can imagine or invent, I think I go back over my life - I don't recommend this by the way - and you pick up, oh, what'd you do that for? Why didn't you understand this?”

Thinking Way I Can Imagine Creating Picks

Author:Toni Morrison

“I don't work. I keep telling people I'm unemployed. And I don't wash dishes, and I don't wash clothes, and I don't clean my house. Somebody else does that.”

People Doe House Clothes Clean Dishes Unemployed

Author:Toni Morrison

“I don't think I knew any of my father's friends - male friends - by their real names. I remember them only by their nicknames.”

Thinking Real Remember Father Names Males Nicknames

Author:Toni Morrison

“Sometimes the names were humiliating, deliberately so. Somebody would pick out your flaw. If you were little, they would call you Shorty. And if you were angry, they would call you the Devil.”

Ifs Littles Sometimes Names Picks Devil Angry Flaws Humiliating

Author:Toni Morrison

“I couldn't bear to have people mispronounce my name. But the person I was was this person who was called Chloe.”

People Persons Names Bears Chloe

Author:Toni Morrison

Quote by Toni Morrison

Author

You May Also Like