Toni Morrison Quotes

My first-born. All I can remember of her is how she loved the burned bottom of bread. Can you beat that? Eight children and that's all I remember.

You don't have to love me but you damn well have to respect me.

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

The screams of a hurt woman were indistinguishable from everyday traffic.

Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it.

You got two feet, Sethe, not four...

Could she sing? (Was it nice to hear when she did?) Was she pretty? Was she a good friend? Could she have been a loving mother? A faithful wife? Have I got a sister and does she favor me? If my mother knew me would she like me?

I had only one desire: to dismember it. To see of what it was made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped me, but apparently only me.

Perhaps that's what all human relationships boil down to: Would you save my life? or would you take it?

She smiled then, at the memory of it. The smile broke in two and became a sudden suck of air, but she did not shudder of close her eyes. She wheeled.

You are your best thing

Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.

As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.

In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.