Toni Morrison

An interview with Toni Morrison in The Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/13/toni-morrison-home-son-love

She has a new book, Home, which I'll read. I've read all her novels. I can't say I've fully understood them all, but spending time with her makes me feel better, hopeful, inspired.

In this interview she talks about the loss of her son, aging, politics in the USA. She is a woman worth listening to.

Here she says again, similar to one of my favourite quotes of hers, how becoming a mother freed her. She began writing fiction at the age of 39. She's now 81. She's written the books she wanted to read.

At one level, says Morrison, it was terrifically simple. "I was young. I started writing when I was 39. That's the height of life. The real liberation was the kids, because their needs were simple. One, they needed me to be competent. Two, they wanted me to have a sense of humour. And three, they wanted me to be an adult. No one else asked that of me. Not in the workplace – where sometimes they'd want you to be feminine, or dominant, or cute." She smiles. "The kids didn't care if I did my hair, didn't care what I looked like."

Enjoy.