One of the things that struck me when I came to the U.S. was discovering American poverty.

I can write with authority only about what I know well, which means that I end up using surface details of my own life in my fiction.

I am interested in challenging the mainstream ideas of what is beautiful and what is acceptable.

There are some things that are so unforgivable that they make other things easily forgivable.

We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. If we have sons, we don't mind knowing about our sons' girlfriends, but our daughters' boyfriends? God forbid. But of course when the time is right, we expect those girls to bring back the perfect man to be their husband.

I think my first general rule is that most of my experiences are not that interesting. It's usually other people's experiences. It's not that entirely conscious. Somebody tells me a story or, you know, repeats an anecdote that somebody else told them and I just feel like I have to write it down so I don't forget - that means for me, something made it fiction-worthy. Interesting things never happen to me, so maybe two or three times when they do, I have to use them, so I write them down.

Race doesn't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice.