I began to realize that this idea of the lighter the better and the darker the worse was really - had an impact on sororities, on friendships, on all sorts of things, and it was stunning to me. Toni Morrison More Quotes by Toni Morrison More Quotes From Toni Morrison More than fear of loving bears or birds bigger than cows, I fear pathless nights. How, I wonder, can I find you in the dark? Toni Morrison dark bird night Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul. Toni Morrison success positive life Alice thought, No. It wasn't the War and the disgruntled veterans; it wasn't the droves and droves of colored people flocking to paychecks and streets full of themselves. It was the music. The dirty, get-on-down music the women sang and the men played and both danced to, close and shamelesss or apart and wild...It made you do unwise disorderly things. Just hearing it was like violating the law. Toni Morrison men war dirty I'm losing the definition now of politics. I sort of don't know what that is anymore. People say politically correct, I don't know what that means. I know what they think they mean. Toni Morrison mean people thinking Now what? All the battles feminists won about not being a sex object, not being evaluated based on these things, that now other generations are wallowing in, the extremes they go to, to look sexually attractive? It's stunning how things that one fought desperately for are just being tossed aside with aplomb. Toni Morrison feminist battle sex My theory is that the world is a difficult place to live in and distraction is the name of the game. Toni Morrison names games world I think there's data, and then there's information that comes from data, and then there's knowledge that comes from information. And then, after knowledge, there is wisdom. I am interested in how to get from data to wisdom. Toni Morrison data information thinking Literature, it seems to me, is wisdom. Toni Morrison literature seems I have difficulties with contemporary language. Big difficulties. I counted, you know, something like 160 words have disappeared from the English language because of the use of the word "like." "I'm like, he's like" - not "thought," not "as if ." Toni Morrison bigs language use Maybe [I care about language] because I'm an editor, maybe because I'm picky, but it's all we got, don't shrink it. Don't dumb it out, make it little. Toni Morrison editors care dumb The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know. Toni Morrison college writing school Most of the really good literature I've read in my life was political, meaning it was important - about something going on in the history of the world - or contemporary. Toni Morrison political important literature Evil is just sort of ultimately boring. The good thing is just complicated. It's more provocative to me and more stimulating to me. Toni Morrison boring complicated evil The Administration of the United States is such dread I almost feel paralyzed. Toni Morrison dread administration united-states I'm a writer in the world. I translate the confusion that I might feel, the dread that I know I feel, moving towards some other place, moving away from puny language, from all that dread into some other kind of language. Toni Morrison confusion world moving There's a contract that I make between myself, the author, and the reader. I have to figure out how to give the reader certain powers of recognition, or his own knowledge, his own feelings, but I provide them, so we're working together. Toni Morrison working-together feelings giving My metaphor is that evil always has a top hat and a cape, and goodness is over there in the corner. For me it's just too easy, if you hate your country or your wife, so you kill them. You can't think through that, you can't feel through that, you can't do the work. And now we have guns. Solution? I don't think so. Toni Morrison hate gun country 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. Toni Morrison evil kids interesting Think of anybody - Dostoevsky or Jane Austen - [their work] was always something that now we would call political. So I don't see those separations too much, between what is artistic and what is political. Maybe in painting... no, I don't even believe that. Toni Morrison political believe thinking It seems to me everything Shakespeare did was political. Toni Morrison political seems
