Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, whose "Beloved" was an Oprah Book Club Selection, was a major mover behind the scenes at last night's 1999 National Book Awards dinner in New York. She delivered the guest of honor. "I, for one, got Oprah Winfrey to come get her award," Morrison told PEOPLE Online. "Because she said 'No,' or she didn't answer, so they asked me would I call her. And I said, 'Sure.' Because I liked the idea that she would get some recognition for the work that she has done." As for the honored guest herself, Oprah -- clearly the evening's center of attention -- casually bit the hand that feeds her when she told PEOPLE Online: "I read and don't watch TV. And now that Steadman (Graham, her longtime companion) and I are teaching this course (at Northwestern University), I'm all read up. I'm read up for fiction. I just resupplied myself with new fiction recently because I've read everything that's in my own personal library. And I have the time because I don't watch television."