Toni Morrison Quotes

In my own writing, I think of myself as a realist who exaggerates a little.

It's a dead give away of an inexperienced writer if every character speaks with the same voice.

There should really not be anything gratuitous in a work of art. Sometimes what seems as if it's gratuitous may be a passage in which a character is being characterized so that the reader comes to know him or her better.

The novel avoids the sublime and seeks out the interesting.

First person narrative is a very effective tool but you have to know as a writer how to make it work.

To understand a literary style, consider what it omits.

I have just finished my novel (rough draft). It is to be called 'Anacoluthon.' This will make the public think it is an historical romance.

My lip curls in a snide reflex whenever I hear that a new novel is written from the point of view of a child or a monster, a lunatic or an animal. I immediately expect a nasty coyness of tone, cheesy artifice, the world through cardboard 3-D lenses.

It's good for a story to have a strong style.

Fred Moten is a poet I really love because he changes who is telling the poem all the time.

I don't usually like teen novels written in the present tense, particularly those told from a first-person viewpoint. Too many writers seem to believe that using either or both devices automatically imbues their stories with deep seriousness and a contemporary feel.

I like to describe my characters as though they were all trapped in a glass box.

Writing in the first person automatically gives you a point of view.

There are writers who draw immediate attention to the fact that it's fiction. And I like some of that, but it doesn't really have the power.

I've always written in first person. It gives the readers more insight.

He was too young to know that, in any novel with a reasonable amount of forethought, there were no coincidences.

Numbers tend to give the impression that there's more order in the world than there is.

You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in a characteristic way. You simply show it and shut up.

The thing to remember when you're writing," he said, " is, it's not whether or not what you put on paper is true. It's whether it wakes a truth in your reader. I don't care what literary device you might use, or belief systems you tap into--if you can make a story true for the reader, if you can give them a glimpse into another way of seeing the world, or another way that they can cope with their problems, then that story is a succes.

Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.

Set your fantasies in the here and now and then, if challenged, claim to be writing Magical Realism.

Don't tell readers what to think. Let the action speak for itself.

I think tone gives birth to the story.

The illusion is an agreement between the reader and writer that this [story] will be like life. The emotional temperature drops when you have footnotes.

The temptation to vivify the tale and make it walk abroad on its own legs is hard to deny.