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4f3f9c2
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When I first seed Cholly, I want you to know it was like all the bits of color from that time down home when all us chil'ren went berry picking after a funeral and I put some in the pocket of my Sunday dress, and they mashed up and stained my hips. My whole dress was messed with purple, and it never did wash out. Not the dress nor me. I could feel that purple deep inside me. And that lemonade Mama used to make when Pap came in out the field..
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toni-morrison
the-bluest-eye
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Toni Morrison |
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bbc0bc5
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And even later, when for the first time in her life she had lain in bed with a man and said his name involuntarily or said it truly meaning him, the name she was screaming and saying was not his at all.
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Toni Morrison |
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e92fe64
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I didn't even know his name. And if I didn't know his name then there is nothing I did know and I have known nothing ever at all since the one thing I wanted was to know his name so how could he help but leave me since he was making love to a woman who didn't even know his name.
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Toni Morrison |
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6f44394
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She is convinced that when language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, not only she herself, but all users and makers are accountable for its demise. In her country children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the voice of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, ..
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Toni Morrison |
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826b8e4
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But then Job was a man. Invisibility was intolerable to men. What complaint would a female Job dare to put forth? And if, having done so, and He deigned to remind her of how weak and ignorant she was, where was the news in that? What shocked Job into humility and renewed fidelity was the message a female Job would have known and heard every minute of her life.
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women
religion
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Toni Morrison |
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63fd1f4
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Milkman could hardly breathe. Hagar's voice scooped up what little pieces of heart he had left to call his own.
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Toni Morrison |
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82cfe4f
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You are my shaper and my world as well. It is done. No need to choose.
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Toni Morrison |
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0677bd8
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Apparently he thought he deserved only to be loved--from a distance, though--and given what he wanted. And in return he would be . . . what? Pleasant? Generous? Maybe all he was really saying was: I am not responsible for your pain; share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness.
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pain
relationship
happiness
love
sincerity
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Toni Morrison |
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a606e8f
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What you want to be when you grow up?" Thomas turned the knob with his left hand and opened the door. "A man," he said and left."
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Toni Morrison |
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b5169c8
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You your best thing.
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Toni Morrison |
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c60eca7
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At least she's willing to figure it out, do something, risk something and take its measure. I risk nothing. I sit on a throne and identify signs of imperfection in others.
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Toni Morrison |
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4e0b065
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Adults do not talk to us--they give us directions. They issue orders without providing information.
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Toni Morrison |
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3af057e
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After all that carryin' on just gettin' him out and keepin' him alive he wanted to crawl back in my womb and well...I ain't got the room no more even if he could do it. There wasn't space for him in my womb (71).
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Toni Morrison |
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21d9656
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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 daughter. I'm not Nel. I'm me. Me." Every time she said the word me there was a gathering in her like power, like joy, like fear. Back in bed with her discovery, she stared out the window at the dark leaves of the horse chestnut. "Me," she murmured. And then, sinking deeper into the quilts, "I want..
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individuality
freedom
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Toni Morrison |
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337a67a
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How can I take crime shows seriously where the female detectives track killers in Louboutin heels?
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Toni Morrison |
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c021002
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It may even be that some of us know what it is like to be actually hated--hated for things we have no control over and cannot change.
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Toni Morrison |
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e155a3b
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A writer's life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.
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Toni Morrison |
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e13ad4e
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Don't be afraid. My telling can't hurt you in spite of what I have done and I promise to lie quietly in the dark - weeping perhaps or occasionally seeing the blood once more - but I will never again unfold my limbs to rise up and bare teeth. I explain. You can think what I tell you a confession, if you like, but one full of curiosities familiar only in dreams and during those moments when a dog's profile plays in the steam of a kettle. Or w..
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Toni Morrison |
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241224a
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But suppose my eyes aren't blue enough? Blue enough for what? Blue enough for...I don't know. Blue enough for something. Blue enough...for you!
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Toni Morrison |
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ad3d984
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Everybody knew what she was called, but nobody anywhere knew her name. Disremembered and unaccounted for, she cannot be lost because no one is looking for her, and even if they were, how can they call her if they don't know her name?
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Toni Morrison |
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1d03a33
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Imagine something. Something that fits in the dark. Say the dark is the sky at night. Imagine something in it." "A star?" "Yes." "I can't. I can't see it." "Okay. Don't try to see it. Try to be it. Would you like to know what it's like to be one? Be a star?" "A movie star?" "No, a star star. In the sky. Keep your eyes closed, think about what it feels like to be one." He moved over to her and kissed her shoulder. "Imagine yourself in that d..
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Toni Morrison |
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0b2a5dc
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You have pissed your last in this house . . . and I don't make velvet roses anymore.
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Toni Morrison |
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cac8a35
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Her color is a cross she will always carry.
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Toni Morrison |
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577fbef
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Violet learned then what she had forgotten until this moment: that laughter is serious. More complicated, more serious than tears.
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violet-trace
toni-morrison
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Toni Morrison |
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ec0b5ec
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A voluntary act to fill empty hours had become intensive labor streaked with the bad feelings that ride the skin like pollen when too much about one's neighbors is known.
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Toni Morrison |
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5a32d28
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You're in trouble,' she says, yawning. 'Deep, deep trouble. Can't rival the dead for love. Lose every time.
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Toni Morrison |
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9e30a63
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Over and over and with the least provocation, they pulled from their stock of stories tales about the old folks, their grands and great-grands; their fathers and mothers. Dangerous confrontations, clever manoeuvres. Testimonies to endurance, wit, skill and strength. Tales of luck and outrage. But why were there no stories to tell of themselves? About their own lives they shut up. Had nothing to say, pass on. As though past heroism was enoug..
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Toni Morrison |
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b10beff
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And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life.
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Toni Morrison |
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c720925
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Down came the dry flakes, fat enough and heavy enough to crash like nickels on stone. It always surprised him, how quiet it was. Not like rain, but like a secret.
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Toni Morrison |
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f0f1d3b
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A shudder ran through Paul D. A bone-cold spasm that made him clutch his knees. He didn't know if it was bad whiskey, nights in the cellar, pig fever, iron bits, smiling roosters, fired feet, laughing dead men, hissing grass, rain, apple blossoms, neck jewelry, Judy in the slaughterhouse, Halle in the butter, ghost-white stairs, chokecherry trees, cameo pins, aspens, Paul A's face, sausage or the loss of a red, red heart.
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Toni Morrison |
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3c9b22f
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A shudder ran through Paul D. A bone-cold spasm that made him clutch his knees. He didn't know if it was bad whiskey, nights in the cellar, pig fever, iron bits, smiling roosters, fired feet, laughing dead men, hissing grass, rain, apple blossoms, neck jewelry, Judy in the slaughterhouse, Halle in the butter, ghost-white stairs, chokecherry trees, cameo pins, aspens, Paul A's face, sausage or the loss of a red, red heart
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Toni Morrison |
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e3e12d0
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Geraldine, Louis, Junior, and the cat lived next to the playground of Washington Irving School. Junior considered the playground his own, and the schoolchildren coveted his freedom to sleep late, go home for lunch, and dominate the playground after school. He hated to see the swings, slides, monkey bars, and seesaws empty and tried to get kids to stick around as long as possible. White kids; his mother did not like him to play with niggers...
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Toni Morrison |
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84cd344
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Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door. It is very pretty.
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Toni Morrison |
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b548935
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What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?
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Toni Morrison |
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71c702d
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All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.
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Toni Morrison |
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09673d4
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In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.
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Toni Morrison |
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5902187
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Everywhere, everywhere, children are the scorned people of the earth.
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Toni Morrison |
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718252a
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white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President
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Toni Morrison |
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7f9b232
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You free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.
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Toni Morrison |
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f9c0827
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I want to see a white man convicted for raping a black woman.
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Toni Morrison |
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5599410
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Like any artist with no art form, she became dangerous.
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Toni Morrison |
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7603537
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124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom.
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Toni Morrison |
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728940a
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A man ain't nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that's somebody.
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Toni Morrison |
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c4acd72
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Anything dead coming back to life hurts.
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Toni Morrison |