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“Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence.”

—Toni Morrison

“'Lonely, ain’t it?' 'Yes, but my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else’s. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain’t that something? A secondhand lonely.'”

—Toni Morrison, Sula

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.”

—Toni Morrison

“Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.”

—Toni Morrison

“You don't even see how racist that question is.”

—Toni Morrison in response, when asked by a white female reporter if she never felt compelled to write white characters.

“Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it.”

—Toni Morrison, Jazz

“Outlaw women are fascinating--not always for their behavior, but because historically women are seen as naturally disruptive and their status is an illegal one from birth if it is not under the rule of men. In much literature a woman's escape from male rule led to regret, misery, if not complete disaster. In Sula I wanted to explore the consequences of what that escape might be, on not only a conventional black society, but on female friendship. In 1969, in Queens, snatching liberty seemed compelling. Some of us thrived; some of us died. All of us had a taste.”

—Toni Morrison, “Foreward” to Sula

“..Take away the gaze of the white male. Once you take that out, the whole world opens up.”

—Toni Morrison

“I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.”

—Toni Morrison
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