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

Toni Morrison, Ohio Arts Council speech, 1981

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The story behind the card

Toni Morrison (1931–2019), the American novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, said this at the annual meeting of the Ohio Arts Council in 1981, and The Cincinnati Enquirer reported it on 27 September that year. She had lived by it: she began her first novel, The Bluest Eye (1970), because it was the book she wanted to read and could not find. Others had said something similar, from Benjamin Disraeli in the 1830s to C. S. Lewis, but this wording is hers.

Türkçe oku
Okumayı gerçekten istediğiniz bir kitap henüz yazılmamışsa, onu siz yazmalısınız.
Toni Morrison, Ohio Sanat Konseyi konuşması, 1981

1993'te Nobel Edebiyat Ödülü'nü kazanan Amerikalı romancı Toni Morrison (1931–2019) bu sözü 1981'de Ohio Sanat Konseyi'nin yıllık toplantısında söyledi; The Cincinnati Enquirer gazetesi de aynı yılın 27 Eylül'ünde aktardı. Morrison bu söze kendisi de uymuştu: İlk romanı En Mavi Göz'ü (1970), okumak isteyip de bulamadığı kitap olduğu için yazmaya başlamıştı. Benzer bir şeyi 1830'larda Benjamin Disraeli'den C. S. Lewis'e kadar başkaları da söylemişti, ama bu ifade Morrison'ındır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: The Bluest Eye
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