I don't wait to be struck by lightning and I don't need certain slants of light in order to be able to write.
Interpretation
Toni Morrison emphasizes the importance of taking initiative and finding inspiration in oneself rather than waiting for external circumstances.
In this quote, Toni Morrison conveys that true creativity does not rely on ideal conditions or sudden bursts of inspiration. Instead, she highlights the importance of personal agency in the creative process, suggesting that writers should develop their craft independently, relying on their own determination and drive rather than waiting for external validation or the perfect moment to express themselves.
In practice
An aspiring writer shared the quote at a workshop to motivate participants to write every day.
There is a certain kind of peace that is not merely the absence of war. It is larger than that. The peace I am thinking of is not at the mercy of history's rule, nor is it a passive surrender to the status quo. The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one -- an activity that occurs most naturally, most often in the reading/writing world we live in. Accessible as it is, this particular kind of peace warrants vigilance.
You looking good." "Devil's confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad.
What do you say? There really are no words for that. There really aren't. Somebody tries to say, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.' People say that to me. There's no language for it. Sorry doesn't do it. I think you should just hug people and mop their floor or something.
An innocent man is a sin before God. Inhuman and therefore untrustworthy. No man should live without absorbing the sins of his kind, the foul air of his innocence, even if it did wilt rows of angel trumpets and cause them to fall from their vines.
Like friendship, hatred needed more than physical intimacy; it wanted creativity and hard work to sustain itself
One of my kids was born in 1968. There were going to be political difficulties, but they were never going to have that level of hatred and contempt that my brothers and my sister and myself were exposed to.
Dai Vernon, the greatest sleight of hand figure in the history of the art, rarely performed. But he invented magic and had an enormous influence on the whole range of sleight of hand. And so often, the magic he was doing was to fool other magicians.
No critic writing about a film could say more than the film itself, although they do their best to make us think the oppposite.
I remember saying to myself those things are very, very important to hear, but there must be another way to say them so that they will truly be heard. I mean, that's what art is. Art is about being provocative. Art is also about beauty. And if you leave the latter out, the former doesn't matter.
Music has got to be useful for survival, or we would have gotten rid of it years ago.
Enjoying fiction requires a shift in selfhood. You give up your own identity and try on the identities of other people, adopting their perspectives so as to share their experiences. This allows us to enjoy fictional events that would shock and sadden us in real life.
If you get something right, you really feel it, right in your chest, on stage. I think it's an incomparable experience.
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