...when the little boy discovered, at four, the same thing Mr. Smith had learned earlier -- that only birds and planes could fly -- he lost all interest in himself. Toni Morrison More Quotes by Toni Morrison More Quotes From Toni Morrison I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it. Toni Morrison should-have views people If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. Toni Morrison milkman ifs air Black women have always been friends. I mean, if you didn't have each other you had nothing. Toni Morrison black-women black mean When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same. Toni Morrison pain suffering sympathy If happiness is anticipation with certainty, we were happy. Toni Morrison anticipation certainty ifs It had been the longest time since she had had a rib-scraping laugh. She had forgotten how deep and down it could be. So different from the miscellaneous giggles and smiles she had learned to be content with these past few years. Toni Morrison laughing past years To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing. Toni Morrison wicked dominion giving Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me. Toni Morrison daughter mom literature Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. 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 dark writing believe Not knowing it was hard; knowing it was harder Toni Morrison harder beloved knowing I'm interested in the way in which the past affects the present and I think that if we understand a good deal more about history, we automatically understand a great more about contemporary life. Toni Morrison way past thinking I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort. Toni Morrison vision writing thinking Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it. Toni Morrison done writing world The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time. Toni Morrison political beautiful art There is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship's, smooths and contains the rocker. It's an inside kind--wrapped tight like skin. Then there is the loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive. On its own. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one's own feet going seem to come from a far-off place. Toni Morrison skins loneliness feet Well, feel this, why don't you? Feel how it feels to have a bed to sleep in and somebody there not worrying you to death about what you got to do each day to deserve it. Feel how that feels. And if that don't get it, feel how it feels to be a colored woman roaming the roads with anything God made liable to jump on you. Feel that. Toni Morrison bed worry sleep I really think the range of emotions and perceptions I have had access to as a black person and as a female person are greater than those of people who are neither.... So it seems to me that my world did not shrink because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger. Toni Morrison black people thinking I wish I’d a knowed more people. I would of loved ‘em all. If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more Toni Morrison ems wish people How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn't love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves. Toni Morrison falling-in-love cities country Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do. Toni Morrison
