More Quotes by Toni Morrison
In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.
The function of freedom is to free someone else.
I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are.
Liberation means you don't have to be silenced.
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.
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.
A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.
Racism will disappear when it's no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it'll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con.
If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down.
I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.
