15 Memorable Quotes By Toni Morrison

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”

Song of Solomon

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

Beloved

“Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.”

Beloved

“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.”

Beloved

“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.”

Tar Baby

“What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?”

Song of Solomon

“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”

“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.”

“Something that is loved is never lost.”

Beloved

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

The Bluest Eye

Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation.”

“If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.”

“Writing is really a way of thinking—not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.”

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

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