SOURCE: Morrison, Toni, and Anne-Marie O'Connor. “Love and the Outlaw Women.” Los Angeles Times (15 October 2003): E1.

In the following interview, Morrison discusses her career and her novel Love.

Distinguished American novelist Toni Morrison is in her Manhattan apartment, talking about “outlaw women.” Dressed in a flowing black shirt and pants, with luminous strands of pearls around her neck and long, graying braids twisting down her back, Morrison chooses her words carefully, her voice low, soft and forceful.

“Outlaw women who don't follow the rules are always interesting to me,” she begins, her eyes thoughtful and expressive, “because they push themselves, and us, to the edge. The women who step outside the borders, or who think other thoughts, define the limits of civilization, but also challenge it.”

A string of these women have peopled the novels of this Nobel laureate, from Song of Solomon to Sula and Paradise. But...