Toni Morrison

has always struck me as an admirably no-nonsense woman.



I'll never forget her interview with Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Gross asked one of those questions that admirers seem to consider evidence of her superior interviewing skills.
"Why don't you have any white characters in your books," she said. (Would she have asked Phillip Roth or John Updike why they don't have any black characters? Heh.)
"Because white people don't interest me," said Morrison, coldly.
I think that's when Gross's stammer really kicked in. The conversation remained uncomfortable, and when Gross thanked Morrison at the end, the real kicker came.
Instead of "it was a pleasure" or "why, thank YOU" as most of them say, Morrison replied, "you're welcome." I laughed out loud.
And she's a wonderful writer. My favorite book of hers still is The Bluest Eye, because its candor just stunned me. And I always advise people who are listening to audio books to get her own version of Jazz, it's like the music itself, her clear intention.
There's a little snippet of a Q&A with her in Time this week.
Money quote:
Do you regret referring to Bill Clinton as the first black President? —Justin Dews, Cambridge, Mass.
People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race.