I was just looking at moving to Cambridge, and a house I was looking at cost a million dollars. Because somehow, that's what a house costs. And I was thinking, "How can it be?" And I was thinking, "What am I doing? Am I going to be Niall Ferguson, that horrible man?

The thing about writing in America is that writers in America have an arc. You enter writing as a career, you expect to be successful, and really it's the wrong thing. It's not a profession.

I didn't know it was possible to be successful as a writer, so I wasn't afraid to fail.

One of the things reading does, it makes your loneliness manageable if you are an essentially lonely person.

On their way to freedom, some people find riches, some people find death.

Express everything you like. No word can hurt you. None. No idea can hurt you. Not being able to express an idea or word will hurt you more. Like a bullet.

People only say I’m angry because I’m black and I’m a woman.