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10 famous quotes by the legendary Toni Morrison

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The late Toni Morrison.
The late Toni Morrison.
Photo: Getty Images

August marks four years since the passing of the iconic Toni Morrison.

As reported by NPR, the author died at 88 at Montefiore Medical Center in New York on 5 August 2019.

Over her six-decade career, she wrote 11 novels, five children’s books, two plays and an opera. She also served as an editor and professor, mentoring generations of young writers

The Nobel Prize winner created a legacy publishing some of the most highly acclaimed novels of all times, including Beloved, Sula, The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Song of Solomon and Jazz. She was a powerful figure in both the black and feminist communities. She left a powerful legacy of literature that many women have benefited from. As a tribute to her, here are some quotes that inspire us: 

1. “Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” – Beloved 

2. “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.” – Beloved 

3. “Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous.” – Toni Morrison 

4. “If you’re going to hold someone down, you’re going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression.” – Toni Morrison 

READ MORE | Women’s Month Spotlight | Power women taking up space in business 

5. “As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.” – Toni Morrison 

6. “Love is never any better than the lover.” – The Bluest Eye 

7. “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, you need to free someone else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.” – From an interview in Oprah magazine 

8. “From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.” – Be Your Own Story, Wellesley College commencement speech, 2004 

9. “You can’t own a human being. You can’t lose what you don’t own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? You really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don’t, do you? And neither does he. He can’t value you more than you value yourself.” – Song of Solomon 

10. “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” – From her 1993 Nobel Prize lecture

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