Toni Morrison

Some authors just command respect. Toni Morrison who passed away this week at age 88 is/was one of those authors. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Beloved. Her writing and presence was strong, commanding, classy, and unique. She offered a challenge to life, conscience, and history.

Here are a few quotes from Toni Morrison. She is a writer who will remain a current and constant in American literature. A formidable body of work.

Narrative has never been merely entertainment for me. It is, I believe, one of the principal ways in which we absorb knowledge.    Her Nobel lecture.

I decided that winning the Nobel was fabulous. Nobody was going to take that and make it into something else. I felt representational. I felt American. I felt Ohioan. I felt blacker than ever. I felt more woman than ever. I felt all of that, and put all of that together and went out and had a good time. 

1993  It is not possible for me to be unaware of the incredible violence, the willful ignorance, the hunger for other people's pain. 

2012  When I'm not thinking about a novel, or not actually writing it, it's not very good; the 21st century is not a very nice place. I need writing to just stay steady, emotionally. 

Her books and work live on , they breathe and keep us aware of history, life, and the human challenge.