When she started The Bluest Eye she was the single mother of two boys, living in Syracuse, New York. She rose at 4am every morning to write before work. If she felt discouraged, she thought about her grandmother, who had fled the south with seven children and no means of support. Any existential panic – about her income, her prospects as a writer, her availability as a mother – evaporated in the face of daily necessity.
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.”
From Toni Morrison in The Guardian. You should read the whole interview, it’s wonderful. (And Toni Morrison has previously contributed one of my all-time favourite quotes about motherhood, here).
P.S. Love that she describes my current age, 39, as both “the height of life” and “young”.
I agree. Men and the male controlled media tell us we’re old at 39 so we’ll die quicker, spiritually and physically. Nothing scares them more than a healthy older woman, becuase older women are their enemy- they are experienced enough to have a clue about how men are.
We need to empower poor black women in the cities and around the world by encouraging them to attach to other women and to their children, rather than clinging to men all the time. Women are often happier raising kids with other women and not getting into permanent relationships with men because a large amount of men are selfish or harmful.
I liked this post!
Gotta read the entire interview, but I’m so very very happy to read just this bit. Thirty-nine as young! As the height of life! I’m about three weeks away from 39 myself. And I had no idea that Morrison started writing when she was my age. Now that I’ve had my second child and plan to have no more, my need to write a book of poems has become urgent. I have a lot to learn, and I often feel like I’ve already missed my chance. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thirty-nine is young! If the average age of death for women is 81, then 39 is less than half a lifetime, and just imagine how much you can accomplish in another half.
Also, 4am before work? Wow! Would that I had her dedication.
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