When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same. Toni Morrison More Quotes by Toni Morrison More Quotes From Toni Morrison Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don't feel safe. Toni Morrison pagessafewriting We're all surrounded by what I call faux language, fake language of commerce, of news media. Toni Morrison newsfakemedia I don't think one parent can raise a child. I don't think two parents can raise a child. You really need the whole village. Toni Morrison twochildrenthinking ...black women write differently from white women. This is the most marked difference of all those combinations of black and white, male and female. It's not so much that women write differently from men, but that black women write differently from white women. Black men don't write very differently from white men. Toni Morrison black-and-whitewritingmen New York is the last true city. Toni Morrison lastscitiesnew-york Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission. Toni Morrison librarywisdomcivilization Anger is better. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality and presence. An awareness of worth. It is a lovely surging. Toni Morrison lovelyawarenessreality I write the way women have babies. You don't know it's going to be like that. If you did, there's no way you would go through with it. Toni Morrison writingbabyway I get angry about things, then go on and work. Toni Morrison angrygoes-oninspiring People say to write about what you know. I'm here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don't know anything. So write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever. Toni Morrison wantwritingpeople I can't explain inspiration. A writer is either compelled to write or not. And if I waited for inspiration I wouldn't really be a writer. Toni Morrison compelledinspirationwriting In a way, her strangeness, her naiveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination. Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings, had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like an artist with no art form, she became dangerous. Toni Morrison disciplineimaginationart So this is what insanity is. Not goofy behavior, but watching a sudden change in the world you used to know. Toni Morrison sudden-changeinsanityworld Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous. Toni Morrison formartistart I laughed but before I could agree with the hairdressers that she was crazy, she said, 'What's the world for if you can't make it up the way you want it?' " 'The way I want it?' " 'Yeah. The way you want it. Don't you want it to be something more than what it is?' " 'What'st eh point? I can't change it.' " 'That's the point. If you don't, it will change you and it'll be your fault cause you let it. I let it. And messed up my life.' " 'Mess it up how?' " 'Forgot it.' " 'Forgot?' " 'Forgot it was mine. My life. I just ran up and down the streets wishing I was somebody else. Toni Morrison crazywishworld What's the world for you if you can't make it up the way you want it? Toni Morrison wantwayworld If you take racism away from certain people - I mean, vitriolic racism as well as the sort of social racist - if you take that away, they may have to face something really terrible, misery, self-misery, and deep pain about who they are. Toni Morrison painselfmean What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not? Toni Morrison differencesrealfear Women's rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about us; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us. Toni Morrison sisterhoodequalityrights Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that supposed to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing. Toni Morrison mothers-daymomchildren
