“I remember a very important lesson that my father gave me when I was twelve or thirteen. He said, "You know, today I welded a perfect seam and I signed my name to it." And I said, "But, Daddy, no one's going to see it!" And he said, "Yeah, but I know it's there."”

—  Toni Morrison

So when I was working in kitchens, I did good work.
As quoted in the New York Times Magazine (11 September 1994).

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Toni Morrison 184
American writer 1931–2019

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