If your family or your people are looking over your shoulder, change your seat or push them away.

I think at the beginning of one's writing life, negative reviews are what one does to get attention and stake out your territory. It's also often a mistake.

Economic justice is not just something blacks are crying out for; whites are desperate for it, too. But in the public imagination, the face of poverty is black. In all actuality, the face of poverty is white.

I can see Obama trying to be the president who suggests solutions for everyone who has experienced economic hardship.

You can get away with anything as long as it works.

Home is the place where there is somebody who does not wish you any pain.

When you are writing the kind of criticism you hope you're writing, everything depends on keeping your calm or your cool. You're trying to tell someone about something that they may know nothing about. They depend on you to read or interpret as best as you can.