Quotes from Toni Morrison

I can be miserable if I want to. You don't need to try and make it go away. It shouldn't go away. It's just as sad as it ought to be and I'm not going to hide from what's true just because it hurts.

Well, that's the way it was. Nobody counted on Garner dying. Nobody though he could. How 'bout that? Everything rested on Garner being alive. Without his life each of theirs fell to pieces. Now ain't that slavery or what is it?

Somewhere between retina and object, between vision and view, his eyes draw back, hesitate, and hover. At some fixed point in time and space he senses that he need not waste the effort of a glance. He does not see her, because for him there is nothing to see.

It was not death or dying that frightened him, but the unexpectedness of both.

Everybody wants the life of a black man. White men want us dead or quiet—which is the same thing as dead. White women, same thing ... They won't even let you risk your own life, man, unless it's over them. You can't even die unless it's about them. What good is a man's life if he can't even choose what to die for?

Were we women so frail in the wake of men who swore they cherished us? Was a lover's betrayal more lethal than betrayal of oneself?

He couldn't stay there surrounded by a passel of slaves whose silence made him imagine an avalanche seen from a great distance. No sound, just the knowledge of a roar he could not hear.

She didn't even know she had a neck until Jude remarked on it, or that her smile was anything but the spreading of her lips until he saw it as a small miracle.

Nadie sabía apreciar la seguridad que proporcionaba la compañía de un fantasma.

Whatever happens, whether you get rich or stay poor, ruin your health or live to old age, you always end up back where you started: hungry for the one thing everybody loses- young loving.

His first earned purchase made him glow, never mind the turnips were withered dry. That was when he decided that to eat, walk and sleep anywhere was life as good as it got.

Lo que tengo que hacer es meterme en la cama y no moverme. Quiero concentrarme en algo que sea inofensivo en este mundo.

To go back to the original hunger was impossible.

First a playroom (where the silence was softer), then a refuge (from her brothers' fright), soon the place became the point.

More it hurt more better it is. Can't nothing heal without pain, you know.

You are worthy to be seen. You are worthy to be heard. You are worthy to be sat with, to be walked beside. Even in your quietest moments, you are worthy of witness.

Tú y yo tenemos más ayer que nadie. Necesitamos alguna suerte de mañana.

There was a hint of spring in her sole green eyes, something summery in her complexion, and a rich autumn ripeness in her walk.

Didn't everything on God's earth have or acquire defense? Speed, some poison in the leaf, the tongue, the tail? A mask, flight, numbers in the millions producing numbers in the millions. A thorn here, a spike there.

Sethe, he says, me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow. He leans over and takes her hand. With the other he touches her face. You your best thing, Sethe. You are. His holding fingers are holding hers. Me? Me?

A blessing she was reckless enough to take for granted, lean on, as though Sweet Home was one... A bigger fool never lived.

Slave life; freed life--everyday was a test and a trial. Nothing could be counted on in a world where even you were a solution you were a problem

Not knowing it was hard; knowing it was harder.

I insist on being shocked. I am never going to become immune. I think that's a kind of failure to see so much of it that you die inside. I want to be surprised and shocked every time.