Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created. Toni Morrison More Quotes by Toni Morrison More Quotes From Toni Morrison Political doesn't necessarily mean you have an agenda. Toni Morrison agendaspoliticalmean ...she needed to confirm its presence. Like the keeper of the lighthouse and the prisoner, she regarded it as a mooring, a checkpoint, some stable visual object that assured her that the world was still there; that this was like and not a dream. That she was alive somewhere, inside, which she acknowledged to be true only because a thing she knew intimately was out there, outside of herself. Toni Morrison alivedreamworld The isolation, the separateness, is always a part of any utopia. Toni Morrison separatenessutopiaisolation The idea of a wanton woman is something I have inserted into almost all of my books. An outlaw figure who is disallowed in the community because of her imagination or activity or status - that kind of anarchic figure has always fascinated me. And the benefits they bring with them, in spite of the fact that they are either dismissed or upbraided - something about their presence is constructive in the long run. Toni Morrison runningbookideas 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. Toni Morrison classboysmean All important things are hard. Toni Morrison important-thingshardimportant Jealousy we understood and thought natural... But envy was a strange, new feeling for us. And all the time we knew that Maureen Peal was not the Enemy and not worthy of such intense hatred. The Thing to fear was the Thing that made her beautiful, and not us. Toni Morrison envyhatredbeautiful The past is interesting to me because it's been dumbed down or flattened out, or academically nitpicked so you can't get any life out of it, you just get data. Toni Morrison datapastinteresting They had stared at her with great uncomprehending eyes. Eyes that questioned nothing and asked everything. Unblinking and unabashed, they stared up at her. The end of the world lay in their eyes, and the beginning, and all the waste in bewteen. Toni Morrison wasteeyeworld If we had no language we'd have nothing. Toni Morrison languageifs It's been mentioned or suggested that Paradise will not be well studied, because it's about this unimportant intellectual topic, which is religion. Toni Morrison topicsparadiseintellectual I remember a very important lesson that my father gave me when I was twelve or thirteen. He said, "You know, today I welded a perfect seam and I signed my name to it." And I said, "But, Daddy, no one's going to see it!" And he said, "Yeah, but I know it's there." So when I was working in kitchens, I did good work. Toni Morrison daddynamesfather Word-work is sublime... because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference-the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. Toni Morrison meaning-of-lifesublimedifferences It is sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you. Toni Morrison heartbreakmissinglong Anger... it's a paralyzing emotion... you can't get anything done. Toni Morrison angeremotiondone I have the wonderful pleasure of finishing the book and closing it. And I don't read them later. Toni Morrison finishingwonderfulbook Gimme hate, Lord,” he whimpered. “I’ll take hate any day. But don’t give me love. I can’t take no more love, Lord. I can’t carry it...It’s too heavy. Jesus, you know, you know all about it. Ain’t it heavy? Jesus? Ain’t love heavy? Toni Morrison hategivingjesus Isolation, you know, carries the seeds of its own destruction because as times change, other things seep in. Toni Morrison seedsisolationdestruction Wait, wait, wait, wait. Don't try to write through it, to force it. Many do, but that won't work. Just wait, it will come. Toni Morrison waitingwritingtrying And wouldn't you know he'd be a singing man. Toni Morrison belovedsingingmen
