Nobel laureate and author Toni Morrison died Monday night at the age of 88, according to her publisher Knopf.
Morrison wrote such admired books like "Beloved," "Song of Solomon," "Sula" and many others, and was the first African American woman to win a Nobel Prize.
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Ever since the news came out of Morrison's death, many fans have been sharing some of their favorite words that Morrison wrote or said on social media and they're all incredible.
Longtime fans of Morrison know just what kind of impact her words have, but people just finding out about the author after her death are just realizing how important her voice was.
From her books to speeches she made accepting prestigious awards, here are a few Morrison quotes to celebrate the life of the famed author:
1. "Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another." — Beloved, 1987.
2. "If you wanna fly, you got to give up the sh*t that weighs you down." —Song of Solomon, 1977.
3. "The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing." —During a 1975 speech.
4. “When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” — From an interview in Oprah Magazine in 2003.
5. "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." — From a 2003 interview.
6. "Don't ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn't fall in love, I rose in it." —Jazz, 1992.
7. "You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself." —Song of Solomon, 1977.
8. "We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." — During her Nobel Prize speech in 1993.
9. "Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined." —Beloved, 1987.
10. "Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion." — The Bluest Eye, 1970.
