Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrisonis an American novelist, editor, and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth18 February 1931
CityLorain, OH
CountryUnited States of America
spring eye pits
Sunk in the grass of an empty lot on a spring Saturday, I split the stems of milkweed and thought about ants and peach pits and death and where the world went when I closed my eyes.
giving-up vanity tails
How come it can’t fly no better than a chicken?’ Milkman asked. Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that [stuff]. Wanna fly, you got to give up the [stuff] that weighs you down.’ The peacock jumped onto the hood of the Buick and once more spread its tail, sending the flashy Buick into oblivion.
life desire needs
To get to a place where you could love anything you chose--not to need permission for desire--well now _that_ was freedom.
becoming habit concentration
It was becoming a habit-this concentration on things behind him. Almost as though there were no future to be had. *Milkman*
differences alive world
When am I happy and when am I sad and what is the difference? What do I need to know to stay alive? What is true in the world?
next stories want
He wants to put his story next to hers.
evil firsts survived
The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over.
improvement adjustment
...the change was adjustment without improvement.
brother kids hatred
One of my kids was born in 1968. There were going to be political difficulties, but they were never going to have that level of hatred and contempt that my brothers and my sister and myself were exposed to.
baby done body
The body is ready to have babies. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it.
cities people black
There is nothing of any consequence in education, in the economy, in city planning, in social policy that does not concern black people.
mean boys class
Everybody gets everything handed to them. The rich inherit it. I don't mean just inheritance of money. I mean what people take for granted among the middle and upper classes, which is nepotism, the old-boy network.
running school cities
Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city.
gun world problem
Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It's truly unbelievable.