"I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort"
About this Quote
Craft gets the job; talent gets the myth. Toni Morrison slices through the romantic fog around writing with a calm, almost surgical distinction: you can teach mechanics, you can’t manufacture the spark. “Vision or talent” sits in the sentence like a closed door, not as elitism but as honesty about the mysterious part of art - the private radar that finds meaning where others see noise. Morrison refuses the workshop fantasy that a checklist can summon originality on demand.
The real tell is her last word: “comfort.” Not “skill,” not “technique,” not even “discipline.” Comfort is psychological infrastructure. It’s the easing of shame, the loosening of self-consciousness, the permission to try badly in public and keep going. In Morrison’s world, that’s not a soft add-on; it’s the condition that lets craft actually stick. A writer who’s tense, defensive, or auditioning for approval can’t hear their own sentences. Comfort is what makes risk possible.
Context matters: Morrison came up in a literary culture that often treated Black writers as representatives first and artists second, with scrutiny that could make every page feel like a referendum. Her emphasis on comfort reads as a quiet countermeasure to that pressure - a teacher’s way of building a room where the student’s voice can arrive intact. The subtext is generous and bracing: no one can hand you your vision, but someone can help you stop flinching long enough to find it.
The real tell is her last word: “comfort.” Not “skill,” not “technique,” not even “discipline.” Comfort is psychological infrastructure. It’s the easing of shame, the loosening of self-consciousness, the permission to try badly in public and keep going. In Morrison’s world, that’s not a soft add-on; it’s the condition that lets craft actually stick. A writer who’s tense, defensive, or auditioning for approval can’t hear their own sentences. Comfort is what makes risk possible.
Context matters: Morrison came up in a literary culture that often treated Black writers as representatives first and artists second, with scrutiny that could make every page feel like a referendum. Her emphasis on comfort reads as a quiet countermeasure to that pressure - a teacher’s way of building a room where the student’s voice can arrive intact. The subtext is generous and bracing: no one can hand you your vision, but someone can help you stop flinching long enough to find it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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