Favorite Author: Toni Morrison

February 18 marks the birthday of beloved American novelist Toni Morrison. To celebrate not only the day, but also her life and legacy, here are seven key quotations from the author's work. (Biographile)

The Bluest Eye (1969)
"There is really nothing more to say — except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how."

Song of Solomon (1977)
"Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down."

"If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it."

Tar Baby (1981)
"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."

Various Interviews and Speeches
"Anger... it's a paralyzing emotion... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers — and I need clarity, in order to write — and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever. I can feel melancholy, and I can feel full of regret, but anger is something that is useful to the people who watch it... it's not useful to me." From an interview with Don Swaim (1987)

"I believe that one of the principle ways in which we acquire, hold, and digest information, is via narrative — so I hope you will understand when the remarks I make begin with the first sentence of our childhood — that we all remember — the phrase: 'Once upon a time.'" From her Nobel Prize Lecture (1993)

"Passion is never enough; neither is skill. But try. For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul." From her Nobel Prize Lecture (1993)