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" Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It's truly unbelievable. "
Toni Morrison
Single
Guns
Sense
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" I don't think a female running a house is a problem, a broken family. It's perceived as one because of the notion that a head is a man. "
Toni Morrison
Family
Broken
Think
" If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own repression. "
Toni Morrison
End
You
Going
" I like marriage. The idea. "
Toni Morrison
Idea
Funny
Like
" I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it. "
Toni Morrison
Wrote
First
Read
" Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are. "
Toni Morrison
Dread
Because
Black
" Everybody gets everything handed to them. The rich inherit it. I don't mean just inheritance of money. I mean what people take for granted among the middle and upper classes, which is nepotism, the old-boy network. "
Toni Morrison
Rich
Money
People
" All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. "
Toni Morrison
Memory
Nature
Perfect
" Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another. "
Toni Morrison
Yourself
Self
One Thing
" I get angry about things, then go on and work. "
Toni Morrison
Work
Things
Angry
" I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it. "
Toni Morrison
Other
Work
Views
" I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway. "
Toni Morrison
Just
Problems
Thinking
" I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons. "
Toni Morrison
Demons
Understanding
Black
" I don't think anybody cares about unwed mothers unless they're black or poor. The question is not morality, the question is money. That's what we're upset about. "
Toni Morrison
Upset
Think
Morality
" No one ever talks about the moment you found that you were white. Or the moment you found out you were black. That's a profound revelation. The minute you find that out, something happens. You have to renegotiate everything. "
Toni Morrison
You
Moment
Find
" I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort. "
Toni Morrison
Talent
Vision
Help
" Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form. "
Toni Morrison
Black
Art
Serious
" Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city. "
Toni Morrison
Black
People
City
" There is nothing of any consequence in education, in the economy, in city planning, in social policy that does not concern black people. "
Toni Morrison
Education
Black
Planning
" The body is ready to have babies. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it. "
Toni Morrison
Handle
Done
Ready
" Everywhere, everywhere, children are the scorned people of the earth. "
Toni Morrison
People
Scorned
Earth
" Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers. "
Toni Morrison
Some
American
Being
" Women's rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about us; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us. "
Toni Morrison
Personal
Equality
Me
" Somebody has to take responsibility for being a leader. "
Toni Morrison
Leader
Take
Responsibility
" A lot of black people believe that Jews in this country have become white. They behave like white people rather than Jewish people. "
Toni Morrison
Black
Believe
People
" In becoming an American, from Europe, what one has in common with that other immigrant is contempt for me-it's nothing else but color. "
Toni Morrison
American
Color
Immigrant
" Black people have always been used as a buffer in this country between powers to prevent class war. "
Toni Morrison
Class
Used
People
" Make a difference about something other than yourselves. "
Toni Morrison
Difference
Make A Difference
Something
" I merged those two words, black and feminist, because I was surrounded by black women who were very tough and and who always assumed they had to work and rear children and manage homes. "
Toni Morrison
Children
Black
Words
" Schools must stop being holding pens to keep energetic young people off the job market and off the streets. We stretch puberty out a long, long time. "
Toni Morrison
Long Time
Long
Time
" You need a whole community to raise a child. I have raised two children, alone. "
Toni Morrison
Child
Children
Community