I recently came across this quote from Toni Morrison on Instagram and immediately wanted to include it in my upcoming book, Women Give Voice to Wisdom. This is the final quote I have chosen for the book, and all of the permissions to use excerpts from the writings of other women are now solid and in place. Thank God – that took forever!!

The story behind this quote is that Toni Morrison was complaining to a friend, after George W. Bush won the presidency in 2004, that she was having difficulty working on her writing. The feedback that she got from her friend was that in times of trouble, we must not despair and stay silent. These are exactly the times when artists most need to get busy and do their work. Here’s the quote and the monoprint I made to go with it:

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.

I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge – even wisdom. Like art.

Toni Morrison (2004)

Life is always so challenging on so many levels, but we must not give in to fear and despair. I keep reminding myself and coming back to this idea over and over again: in these difficult times of insecurity and chaos, we must do what we uniquely have the power to do. Like Toni Morrison realized, it’s especially important in times like these to do what is ours to do. In fact, now that I think of it, in the darkest part of the dark night of my soul, someone told me to just, “keep doing what you are doing.” I was baffled at the time, because my life was a mess, but maybe now it makes just a tiny bit of sense. Remember this mantra, friends – just keep doing what you have the power to do!

Reference: No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear, Toni Morrison, The Nation, April 6, 2015.

Image: No Time for Despair, Julie Henkener, 2025.