Toni Morrison was an Ohio-born writer, editor and educator. She’s the author of Song of Solomon, Beloved, and A Mercy, and was the first black female editor in fiction at Random House. She’s a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.”
“Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don’t feel safe.”
“There’s a difference between writing for a living and writing for life. If you write for a living, you make enormous compromises. If you write for life, you’ll work hard; you’ll do what’s honest, not what pays.”
“I always know the ending; that’s where I start.”
“From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as something artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.”
“The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.”
“Writing is really a way of thinking–not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.”
“Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.”
