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I know what every colored woman in this country is doing... Dying. Just like me. But the difference is they dying like a stump. Me, I’m going down like one of those redwoods. I sure did live in this world.

Toni Morrison

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Toni Morrison
Age: 88 †
Born: 1931
Born: February 18
Died: 2019
Died: August 5
Audiobook Narrator
Librettist
Novelist
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
Lorain
Ohio
Chloe Ardelia Wofford
Chloe Anthony Wofford-Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford
Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison
Woman
Stump
World
History
Redwoods
Women
Stumps
Live
Colored
Country
Dying
Going
Difference
Differences
Every
Sure
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The formula for creative writing in high school or college is write what you know.
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A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.
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If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you.
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Freedom is choosing your responsibility. It's not having no responsibilitie s it's choosing the ones you want.
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Word-work is sublime... because it is generative it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference-the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
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I don't do the things other people call play.
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Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.
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No gasp at a miracle that is truly miraculous because the magic lies in the fact that you knew it was there for you all along.
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You need a whole community to raise a child. I have raised two children, alone.
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For me, Art is the restoration of order. It may discuss all sort of terrible things, but there must be satisfaction at the end. A little bit of hunger, but also satisfaction.
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Gimme hate, Lord,” he whimpered. “I’ll take hate any day. But don’t give me love. I can’t take no more love, Lord. I can’t carry it...It’s too heavy. Jesus, you know, you know all about it. Ain’t it heavy? Jesus? Ain’t love heavy?
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It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love ... You can't own a human being.
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When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.
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Unless carefree, mother love was a killer.
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Misery colored by the greens and blues in my mother's voice took away all the grief out of the words and left me with a conviction that pain was not only endurable, it was sweet.
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Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission.
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We read about how Ajax and Achilles will die for each other, but very little about the friendship of women.
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I know it's trash: just another story made up to scare wicked females and correct unruly children. But it's all I have. I know I need something else. Something better. Like a story that shows how brazen women can take a good man down. I can hum to that.
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The theme you choose may change or simply elude you, but being your own story means you can always choose the tone. It also means that you can invent the language to say who are you and what you mean.
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I want to discourage you from choosing anything or making any decision simply because it is safe. Things of value seldom are
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