Apparently he thought he deserved only to be loved--from a distance, though--and given what he wanted. And in return he would be. . . What? Pleasant? Generous? Maybe all he was really saying was: I am not responsible for your pain; share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness.

— Toni Morrison

As it turned out, the sachem had been dead wrong. The Europe's neither fled nor died out. In fact, said the old women in charge of the children, he had apologized for this error in prophecy and admitted that however many collapsed from ignorance or disease more would always come. They would come with languages that sounded like a dog bark; with a childish hunger for animal fur. They would forever fence land, ship whole trees to faraway countries, take any woman for quick pleasure, ruin soil, befoul sacred place and worship a dull, unimaginative god. Furthermore, they let their hogs browse the ocean shore turning it into dunes of sand where nothing green can ever grow again. Cut loose from the earth's soul, they insisted on purchase of its soil, and like all orphans they were insatiable. It was their destiny to chew up the world and spit out a horribleness that would destroy all primary peoples.

— Toni Morrison

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

— Toni Morrison

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.

— Toni Morrison

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. No record of it needs to be kept, and you don't need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens — that letting go — you let go because you can.

— Toni Morrison

A woman is an important somebody, and sometimes you win the triple crown: good food, good sex, and good talk. Most men settle for anyone, happy as a clam if they get two. But listen, let me tell you something. A good man is a good thing, but there is nothing in the world better than a good woman. She can be your mother, your wife, your girlfriend, your sister, or somebody you work next to. Don’t matter. You find one, stay there. You see a scary one, make tracks.

— Toni Morrison

Birth, life, and death― each took place on the hidden side of a leaf.

— Toni Morrison

Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form.

— Toni Morrison

Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city.

— Toni Morrison

Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war.

— Toni Morrison