Toni Morrison Quotes

My story is a freedom song of struggle. It is about finding one's purpose, how to overcome fear and to stand up for causes bigger than one's self.

I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.

You see, what is my purpose of performance artist is to stage certain difficulties and stage the fear the primordial fear of pain, of dying, all of which we have in our lives, and then stage them in front of audience and go through them and tell the audience, 'I'm your mirror; if I can do this in my life, you can do it in yours.'

The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born.

If I'm tapping anything, it's the frustration of people who have something to say at work or home or in some social setting and just can't do it. I do it for them. I don't take prisoners.

I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.

What's the point of being negative or fearful? We can't control it.

If you have an opportunity to use your voice you should use it.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

You don't have to fear defeat if you believe it may reveal powers that you didn't know you possessed.

There's nothing like overcoming something that scares you so much. Nothing feels better.

There is always a moment in any kind of struggle when one feels in full bloom. Vivid. Alive…. During my years of being close to people engaged in changing the world, I have seen fear turn into courage. Sorrow into joy. Funerals into celebrations. Because whatever the consequences, people, standing side by side, have expressed who they really are, and that ultimately they believe in the love of the world and each other enough to be that-which is the foundation of activism.

You cannot change everything you face and you cannot also change anything without facing it.

Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.

[When sexually harassed a woman should] be fierce. It starts when we stand tall, and we build that self-confidence. And we stand up and we speak up, and we tell the world what happened to us. I know it's scary, but let's do it for our kids. Let's stop this for the next generations. I know that I did it for my children.

That's why I want to change Mississippi. You don't run away from problems - you just face them.

I took some of the hardest things about my life and wrote an empowering song with it. It has made me want to always write from that place.

A community that sees so clearly its own disadvantage or its own hardships also has a harder time seeing its potential: its ability to work together to change the community and change their lives.

When things happen socially in our community, as artists, we've got the right to exercise our voices if we choose to, use our powers for good.

I don't operate in fear anymore.

We need a revolution in consciousness to overturn the system we live in, to strengthen our democracy, to find courage and give hope to our children.

When you got a chance to speak out about something, I feel like you should, and a lot of people will follow you around the country.

I think anyone with a voice should use it. I think a lot of people could, and should, do a lot more.

We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America.