The Voice of Toni Morrison

An episode from 6/26/22: We are incredibly lucky that, in the novelist Toni Morrison (1931-2019), we had that rare thing: a great writer who also achieved great popularity with the general public. This meant that she was interviewed about her life, her books, and about creativity and the news of the day, hundreds of times. Tonight, I’ve gone through my favorite interviews with her and gathered the best parts into these segments:

• (about :35) On love (parental, romantic, religious)
• (about 8:25) On childhood, family history, and being a parent and a writer
• (about 43:32) On race, writing in difficult political and social moments, and being more interested in good than evil
• (about 1:11:48) On writing in general, and specifically the writing of Beloved

The interviews I’ve drawn from are these:

• Toni Morrison In Depth, on C-SPAN
• Toni Morrison on Charlie Rose in 1993, 1998, and 2015
• Toni Morrison, interviewed by Junot Diaz
• Toni Morrison interview by Farah Jasmine Griffin at the 92nd Street Y
• Toni Morrison on NPR’s Fresh Air: in 2015, and a Retrospective
• Toni Morrison on BBC’s World Book Club

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Any comments, or suggestions for readings I should make in later episodes, can be emailed to [email protected].