"I'll tend to her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else--and the one time I did it was took from me--they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby.... I know what it is to be without the milk that belongs to you; to have to fight and holler for it, and to have so little left."

Family, Motherhood, Fight, Loss, Love

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"I'll tend to her as no mother ever tended a child, a daughter. Nobody will ever get my milk no more except my own children. I never had to give it to nobody else--and the one time I did it was took from me--they held me down and took it. Milk that belonged to my baby.... I know what it is to be without the milk that belongs to you; to have to fight and holler for it, and to have so little left."

Exlpore more Family quotes

"Mothers are supposed to listen and, afterward, to respond with some wisdom and perspective, but these things were not my mother's strong suit."

Anne Lamott, American Author

Family, Mother, Listening, Wisdom, Perspective

"If I would be made come to earth again, I would ask for the same mother again. If made to return 100 times to earth, I would request to be born through the same mother 100 times!"

Israelmore Ayivor, Ghanaian Author

Family, Mother, Gratitude, Life, Identity

"You don't build a family by tearing down another one."

Donna Lynn Hope, Jamaican Author

Family, Respect, Building, Values

"Marriage creates one world for your child. For that alone, two old friends can try to see a peaceful world through the eyes of their angels."

Shannon L. Alder, American Author

Family, Marriage, Peace, Friendship

"Could it be? Samantha Kingston? Home? On a Friday? I roll my eyes. "I don't know. Did you do a lot of acid in the sixties? Could be a flashback. "I was two years old in 1960. I came too late for the party. He leans down and pecks me on the head. I pull away out of habit. "And I'm not even going to ask how you know about acid flashbacks. "What's an acid flashback? Izzy crows. "Nothing, my dad and I say at the same time, and he smiles at me."

Lauren Oliver, American Author

Family, Humor, Memory, Generations

"I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars."

E. M. Forster, English Novelist

Family, Mothers, Nations

"...workplace dynamics are no less complicated or unexpectedly intense than family relations, with only the added difficulty that whereas families are at least well-recognised and sanctioned loci for hysteria reminiscent of scenes from Medea, office life typically proceeds behind a mask of shallow cheerfulness, leaving workers grievously unprepared to handle the fury and sadness continually aroused by their colleagues."

Alain de Botton, English Writer

Family, Emotion, Sadness, Life

"You will never realize how precious a baby is until she keeps you awake through the whole night."

Debasish Mridha, American Author

Family, Life, Baby, Value

"A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them."

Victor Hugo, French Author

Family, Mother, Children, Sleep, Tenderness

"There is no teacher equal to mother and there's nothing more contagious than the dignity of a father."

Amit Ray, Indian Author

Family, Teaching, Respect, Dignity

Explore more quotes by Toni Morrison

"Where do you get the right to decide our lives? I'll tell you where. From that little hog's gut that hangs between your legs. Well, let me tell you something... you will need more than that. I don't know where you will get it or who will give it to you, but mark my words, you will need more than that.... You are a sad, pitiful, stupid, selfish, hateful man. I hope your little hog's gut stands you in good stead, and you take good care of it, because you don't have anything else."

Conflict, Rights, Judgment, Anger, Strength

"All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was."

Nature, Memory, Trying, Water

"The body is ready to have babies. Nature wants it done then, when the body can handle it, not after 40, when the income can handle it."

Health, Nature, Babies, Body, Income

"She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."

Friendship, Friend, Man, Mind, Order

"You think because he doesn't love you that you are worthless. You think because he doesn't want you anymore that he is right- that his judgement and opinion of you are correct. If he throws you out, then you are garbage. You think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him. Hagar, don't. It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love. Love shouldn't be like that."

Relationship, Love, Self-Worth, Rejection

"We were two throats and one eye and we had no price."

Unity, Strength, Connection, Identity

"In a way, her strangeness, her naivete, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of idle imagination. Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings; had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like any artist with no art from, she became dangerous."

Artistry, Creativity, Expression, Imagination, Art

"Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down."

Freedom, Burden, Truth, Life

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."

Creativity, Want

"Sleep without the fragrance of her hair next to him was impossible."

Romance, Love, Longing, Memory, Desire