Toni Morrison

“The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work.”

“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.”

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

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

“You are your best thing.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Make a difference about something other than yourselves.”

“All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”

“Something that is loved is never lost.”

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

“Anger is a paralyzing emotion. You can't get anything done.”

“The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self... is the test of their power.”

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

“I get angry about things, then go on and work.”

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