Quotes About Authenticity

I am really Chloe Anthony Wofford. That's who I am. I have been writing under this other person's name. I write some things now as Chloe Wofford, private things. I regret having called myself Toni Morrison when I published my first novel, The Bluest Eye .

You want a real thing?" asked Alice. "I'll tell you a real one. You got anything left to you to love, anything at all, do it.

I want to feel what I feel. Even if it's not happiness

Why not? I can be miserable if I want to. You don't need to try and make it go away. It shouldn't go away. Its just as sad as it ought to be and I'm not going to hide from what's true just because it hurts.

social conversation was impossible for her because she could not lie.

You your best thing.

Not like the me was some tough somebody, or somebody she had put together for show. But like, like somebody she favored and could count on. A secret somebody you didn't have to feel sorry for or have to fight for. -Felice

You got a life? Live it! Live the motherfuckin' life!

I can't tell you why I was in love with her. People didn't require that much as they do now. Folks were expected to be civilized to one another, honest, and - and clear. You relied on people being what they said they were, because there was no other way to survive.

Long ago she had given up trying to be deft or profound or anything in the company of people she was not interested in, who didn't thrill her.

Let your face speak what's in your heart.

I can be miserable if I want to. You don't need to try and make it go away. It shouldn't go away. It's just as sad as it ought to be and I'm not going to hide from what's true just because it hurts.

To use folk language, vernacular in a manner neither exotic nor comic, neither minstrelized nor microscopically analyzed.

Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.

You are your best thing.

Sorrow in discovering that the pyramid was not a five-thousand-year wonder of the civilized world, mysteriously and permanently constructed by generation after generation of hardy men who had died in order to perfect it, but that it had been made in the back room at Sears, by a clever window dresser, of papier-mâché, guaranteed to last for a mere lifetime.

In the midst of a pleasant conversation with someone she might say, "Why do you chew with your mouth open?" not because the answer interested her but because she wanted to see the person's face change rapidly. She was completely free of ambition, with no affection for money, property or things, no greed, no desire to command attention or compliments—no ego. For that reason she felt no compulsion to verify herself—be consistent with herself.

Not like 'me' was some tough somebody, or somebody she had put together for show. But like somebody she favored and could count on. A secret somebody you didn't have to feel sorry for or have to fight for.

lay it all down, sword and shield.

I did not want to feel anything that did not originate with me. Because the big deal, as they described it, was that it made you feel so good. I did not want to feel something that was dependent on it. I want to feel what I feel. What's mine. Even if it's not happiness, whatever that means. Because you're all you've got.

She's an original. Doesn't recognize crazy.

truth is trouble.

Love is or ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.

It took some time to figure out the motives for faking love—hers and theirs. Survival, she supposed, literal and emotional.