In accepting that award, Morrison, keenly and eloquently, described the importance of language in our lives. Her lecture is a fable about the power of language to elucidate and cloud, to oppress and liberate, to honour and sully, and to both quantify and be incapable of capturing a human experience. It’s the way humans wield their powerful tool of language that makes any form of expression so magical, Morrison explains.
“We die,” she says. “That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”