Toni Morrison

"If you are free, then you are responsible for all of your choices."

"Words are signs, and signs are what you make of them."

"Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world."

"Every religion is the shadow of a man's knowledge of himself."

"What are you going to do with your freedom when you have it?"

"The most important thing is your own voice and your own truth."

"Shame is a horrible thing. It creates a kind of paralysis."

"Time is what we measure life by; it becomes the essence of all narratives."

"You cannot direct the wind, but you can adjust your sails."

"The work itself is the most important thing, not the recognition."

"Art is the effort to convey what cannot be spoken."

"Memory is a way of telling stories about the past that shape our future."

"I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs, you will be the less-paid women, and frankly, that's a real problem.'"

"You cannot speak of murder and be sentimental about it."

"The death of the author is the birth of the reader's power."

"In order to progress, we must acknowledge that which oppresses us."

"Writing is the exercise of freedom in the service of beauty."

"A woman without property is not a woman at all."

"Make up stories in your mind and tell them to yourself first."

"To love something is to acknowledge and celebrate all of its complexity."

"The thing that I would ask of everyone is that they read, read, read."

"Beauty is dangerous because it seduces us into forgetting what is important."

"What you have to do is reconcile yourself to where you are, not where you wish to be."

"Racism is as thorough as faith; it can govern everything you do and everything you see."

"The more articulate one is, the more dangerous one can be."

"Mothers are not meant to be the only protection for children."

"To accept a universe where one is not cared for is the beginning of wisdom."

"Life is complicated and it's not meant to be understood as a simple narrative."

"Words are all we have to keep us from the dark."

"What is reckoned good in a woman might be reckonable as slavery."