Our Year with Toni Morrison

November

Home
by Toni Morrison

Misery don't call ahead. That's why you have to stay awake - otherwise it just walks on in your door.

October

A Mercy
by Toni Morrison

I dream a dream that dreams back at me

September

Love
by Toni Morrison

Hate does that. Burns off everything but itself, so whatever your grievance is, your face looks just like your enemy's.

August

Paradise
by Toni Morrison

How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness,
and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it.

July

Jazz
by Toni Morrison

Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it.

June

Beloved
by Toni Morrison

Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

May

Tar Baby
by Toni Morrison

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don't need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens — that letting go — you let go because you can.

April

Song of Solomon
by Toni Morrison

You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.

March

Sula
by Toni Morrison

Like any artist without an art form, she became dangerous.

February

The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison

Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was something one could do.