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.
How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it
Too often, if you look back through the history of representation and you take the work of African-American artists, the work is on such a modest scale that it becomes sort of inconsequential.
The artist need not know very much, best of all let him work instinctively and paint as naturally as he breathes or walks.
The essential elements of singing are voice, musicianship, and story. It is the rare artist that has all three in abundance.
American poetry is this country's greatest patrimony. It takes a stranger to see some things clearly. This is one of them, and I am that stranger.
The idea that a poem was a made thing stayed with me, and I decided then that I wanted to be an artist, not just a diarist. So I put myself through a kind of apprenticeship in writing poetry, and I understood even then that my practice as a poet was deeply related to my reading.
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