Toni Morrison

"When you get there, if you find that some of the things I have said to you are true and some things false, forget the false things."

"There is really nothing more to say—except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how."

"The ability to recognize power is the ability to recognize truth."

"Risky, but worth it, for the beauty of her unfolded self was worth the risk."

"Human beings are more important than money."

"We breathe so that we can speak, and we speak so that we can create meaning."

"The only thing that cannot be taken from us is our capacity to choose."

"Sorrow is clean. Sorrow is productive."

"If there is a book that you want to read but hasn't been written yet, you must write it."

"The function of grief is to acknowledge loss."

"Knowledge creates patterns; wisdom recognizes them."

"Language is a vehicle of desire, but it cannot be the destination."

"The past cannot be changed, but the future is entirely up to us."

"Belonging is a birthright, not a privilege."

"We cannot heal what we do not acknowledge."

"The only exit is through honesty."

"Time is a gift that we cannot afford to waste on bitterness."

"To get nowhere, you must first admit where you are."

"The function of music is to heal the soul."

"We are the keepers of our own stories."

"Patience is not the absence of action; it is timing."

"The strength of the people is the power of the nation."

"Imagination is the only tool of freedom."

"To love is to risk rejection, but to refuse love is to reject life itself."

"The function of language is to create intimacy."

"We are born into history, but we create our destiny."

"Kindness is not always safe, but it is always necessary."

"The map is not the territory; the word is not the thing."

"Work is the only place where we discover our true capacity."

"Dreams deferred may eventually explode into reality."