“It was a fine cry, loud and long, but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

— Toni Morrison, Sula (1973)

About Toni Morrison

1931 – 2019

Nobel Prize-winning American novelist whose work explored Black American experience with unmatched depth and lyricism. Author of Beloved, Song of Solomon, and other towering works.

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“If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”

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“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

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“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

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“Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.”

— Winston Churchill

“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.”

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“A witticism is an epigram on the death of a feeling.”

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“Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end.”

— Albert Camus

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!”

— Benjamin Franklin

“It was a fine cry, loud and long, but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

About Toni Morrison

More from Toni Morrison

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