“Knowledge is what’s important, you know? Not the erasure, but the confrontation of it.” — TONI MORRISON
In this wide-ranging collection of thought-provoking interviews — including her first and last — Toni Morrison (whom President Barrack Obama called a “national treasure”) details not only her writing life, but also her other careers as a teacher, and as a publisher, as well as the gripping story of her family. In fact, Morrison reveals here that her Nobel Prize-winning novels, such as Beloved and Song of Solomon, were born out of her family’s stories — such as those of her great-grandmother, born a slave, or her father, escaping the lynch mobs of the South. With an introduction by her close friend, poet Nikki Giovani, Morrison hereby weaves yet another fascinating and inspiring narrative — that of herself.
“Her writing was a beautiful, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination.” —Barack Obama
"She was our conscience. Our seer. Our truth-teller. She was a magician with language, who understood the Power of words. She used them to roil us, to wake us, to educate us and help us grapple with our deepest wounds and try to comprehend them." —Oprah Winfrey
“Morrison’s characters live with me the way that biblical figures were always in the back of my grandmother’s mind when she needed to make a point.” —Tayari Jones
“She wrote about what was difficult and what was necessary and in doing so she unearthed for a generation of people a kind of redemption, a kind of relief.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Toni Morrison was a giant of her times and ours …” —Margaret Atwood
“Knowledge is what’s important, you know? Not the erasure, but the confrontation of it.” — TONI MORRISON
In this wide-ranging collection of thought-provoking interviews — including her first and last — Toni Morrison (whom President Barrack Obama called a “national treasure”) details not only her writing life, but also her other careers as a teacher, and as a publisher, as well as the gripping story of her family. In fact, Morrison reveals here that her Nobel Prize-winning novels, such as Beloved and Song of Solomon, were born out of her family’s stories — such as those of her great-grandmother, born a slave, or her father, escaping the lynch mobs of the South. With an introduction by her close friend, poet Nikki Giovani, Morrison hereby weaves yet another fascinating and inspiring narrative — that of herself.
Praise
“Her writing was a beautiful, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination.” —Barack Obama
"She was our conscience. Our seer. Our truth-teller. She was a magician with language, who understood the Power of words. She used them to roil us, to wake us, to educate us and help us grapple with our deepest wounds and try to comprehend them." —Oprah Winfrey
“Morrison’s characters live with me the way that biblical figures were always in the back of my grandmother’s mind when she needed to make a point.” —Tayari Jones
“She wrote about what was difficult and what was necessary and in doing so she unearthed for a generation of people a kind of redemption, a kind of relief.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Toni Morrison was a giant of her times and ours …” —Margaret Atwood
