New York City does not hold our former selves against us. Perhaps we can extend the same courtesy.

The fallout from slavery is ongoing. I am not sure the issue of race in America will ever be completely solved.

I didn't have to do that much research to present a post-apocalyptic New York because I basically grew up in that New York. That old New York is gone, and that's one thing that's undiscoverable now but I explore in my fiction.

Talking about New York is a way of talking about the world.

What does the perfect elevator look like, the one that will deliver us from the cities we suffer now, these stunted shacks? We don't know because we can't see inside it, it's something we cannot imagine, like the shape of angels' teeth. It's a black box.

I like movies. I've written screenplays as a sort of procrastination thing for me. Like I'll work for a couple months on this idea that's been kicking around and then like 30 pages in I'll just go try a novel because it's a lot easier. That's what I know. So why am I killing myself?

For years I felt that I wasn't ready to take on slavery. It's a huge topic, and I didn't want to mess it up.