I don't think a white person can write accurately and convincingly about what black people experience of oppression.

You can't tell a writer they should just be more confident.

I find that I get very excited about what my students are up to and that I get to be the hurdle they need to jump over.

If you have a character stand up and put on her shoes and open the door, in order to do that, you're imagining her shoes and her clothes and her house and her door. The character becomes more real. But once you've done that, you can probably just get it all across with a couple of details.

I think that inevitably, the trouble our characters go through is a kind of metaphor for what's happening in ourselves.

Truly things are better in general now, in America, than in the past.

Being part of a community of writers is huge. I really think that's why people go to MFA programs.