if I'd thought that nobody would like it as I was writing it, I would have written it even more. But I never think of the audience. I never think of people reading. I never think of people, period.

In my writing, I'm often describing a universal situation. A situation in which human beings often choose to violate each other. Sometimes I happen to explore that in terms of the black/white dynamic. Generally, a white person does not like me to say, or does not like to be told, "You know, what you did was incredibly wrong."

When I start to write something, I suppose I want it to change me, to make me into something not myself.

When I'm writing, I think about the garden, and when I'm in the garden I think about writing. I do a lot of writing by putting something in the ground.

Life has a truth to it, and it's complicated - it's love and it's hatred.

I wouldn't mind being labeled as "angry," if it wasn't used once again to denigrate and belittle.

Every time I end a book, I look down at myself.