More Quotes by Toni Morrison
Liberation means you don't have to be silenced.
I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge - even wisdom. Like art.
Your life is already artful-waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art.
Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.
It's important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Someone says you have no art so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary. There will always be one more thing.
If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
There is no such thing as race. None. There is just a human race - scientifically, anthropologically. Racism is a construct, a social construct... it has a social function, racism.
In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.
Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.
All important things are hard.
