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

I don't tell everything. I want the reader to have the feeling that maybe they know the whole truth, but they don't.

Remember that a book is many drafts - mine certainly are. It's improvisation. It's as much jazz and the way we talk and the way I heard people preach coming up as it is writing.

Everything is up for grabs, everything is relative. Except nothing is if you are serious about it because the moment you become serious about answering a question you have a stake in it. Relatively goes out of the window, in one sense because you're putting your a** out there - you are depending on the answer, you need the answer.

If I had only a negative side of things to present, I think I would have much less of a drive to do it. Because what would be the point?

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.

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.