Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable.

You have to be a minor superhero just to get to be a dignified man, and that's kind of exacerbated for men of color.

To be a survivor as an African American man - maybe any man - you have to be pretty tough. Or at least that's what we all understand.

Do not fall asleep in your enemy's dream.

There's something human that has to do with time and space and being who I am that is in progress and always will be in progress. And who I am, on different days, different moments, depends on different aspects of my past.

I'm still divided in my principles and what I think is right and what I'm actually able to do, whether talking about writing or being a citizen or being a husband or being a father. And I'm trying to get better.

We're dreamers and - since we only have one life, and if we screw up we can get in a world of trouble - we're very intense dreamers.