Desdemona Quotes

“She is convinced that when language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, not only she herself, but all users and makers are accountable for its demise. In her country children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the voice of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, providing guidance, or expressing love.”
― Toni Morrison, The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993

“We will be judged by how well we love.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“My melancholy thoughts are back.
But I still love the idea of love.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“love cannot live without trust.

Your doubt and my righteousness mangled our love.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“Were we women so frail in the wake of men who swore they cherished us? Was a lover's betrayal more lethal than betrayal of oneself?”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“I am sick of killing as a solution. It solves nothing. Questions nothing, produces nothing, nothing, but more of itself. You thought war was alive, had honor and reason. I tell you it is well beyond all that. My mistake was believing that you hated war as much as I did. You believed I loved Othello the warrior. I did not.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“We will never die again.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“Did you think loving another was a profit-driven harvest: choosing the ripe and discarding the rot? Love is complete, whole, fearless; otherwise it is merely a banquet, a feast planned to sate a hunger for variety, not commitment to one choice. Honest love does not cringe at the first roll of thunder; nor does it flinch when faced with the lightning flash of human sin. I always knew you were caressing me with fingers hardened by swords and that your hands stroking my breasts also drew blood. My error was in believing that you were more than the visage of your mind.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“My husband knew Iago was lying, manipulating, sabotaging. So why did he act on obvious deceit? Brotherhood. The quiet approval beamed from one male eye to another. Bright, tight, camaraderie. Like-mindedness born of the exchange of musk; the buck’s regard of the doe; the mild contempt following her capture. The wide, wild celebrity men find with each other cannot compete with the narrow comfort of a wife. Romance is always overshadowed by brawn. The language of love is trivial compared to the hidden language of men that lies underneath the secret language they speak in public. But real love, the love of an Amazon, is not based on pretty language or the secret sharing between males.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“There are armies of women who kill men in battles so fierce the moon itself hides from the ribbons of shed blood. They cut off their right breasts to ease the arrow shots of their long bows to lethal precision. For this they are called No-Breast or A-Mazon and must remain virgins until after the first time they kill a man. With male blood they stain their hair and with his bone they sharpen their arrowheads. Whole regiments fall before them. They rule wooded nations and desert kingdoms. Waters and precious stones have their names. I have seen them and marveled at their war skills.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“Both died in and for love.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona

“Desire is nature's purest gift.”
― Toni Morrison, Desdemona