The history of race relations in America is very different than something like the Holocaust.

I'm writing out of desperation. I felt compelled to write to make sense of it to myself - so I don't end up saying peculiar things like 'I'm black and I'm proud.' I write so I don't end up as a set of slogans and clichés.

Here I am, a product of something really vicious, product of the Atlantic slave trade. And yet, I give nary a thought to some of the awful things happening right now in the world.

There's a difference between bravery and rash stupidity.

I've come to see that I'm saying something that people generally do not want to hear.

People don't make changes because things are wonderful.

My writing has always been met with derision or dismissal.