Toni Morrison is one of the greatest living writers ever to lay pen to paper.
She's won a Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and a Nobel Prize, and her 1987 book Beloved is regularly considered one of the best works of English literature in the 20th century. At 84 years old, she has nothing left to prove in her professional career.
[seealso slug="black-poets-groundbreaking"]
And yet, on April 21, she released a new novel titled God Help the Child. A meditation on skin color, it follows a young girl named Bride who is spurned by her mother for having extremely dark skin -- "blue-black," the book describes it.
Outside the literary world, Morrison continually drops quote-worthy remarks on race, art and life in general. Occasionally divisive and always thought-provoking, here are a few quotes that serve as as critical food for thought.
[nggallery id=22384 layout="list" title="top"]