"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.












Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

More Toni Morrison quotes
"I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, ...
"Paul D did not answer because she didn't expect or want him to, but he did know what she meant. Listening to the doves in Alfred, Georgia, and having ...
"God take what He would," she said. And He did, and He did, and He did and then gave her Halle who gave her freedom when it didn't mean a thing.
"Not like the me was some tough somebody, or somebody she had put together for show. But like, like somebody she favored and could count on. A secret s...
"You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.
"It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love ... You can't own a human being.
"I'm me," she whispered. "Me"Nel didn't know quite what she meant, but on the other hand she knew exactly what she meant."I'm me. I'm not their daughte...