If Mumia Abu-Jamal has nothing important to say, why are so many powerful people trying to shut him up?

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.

When I'm writing, I'm thinking, "Well, this might be a book that I'll always be happy with, and certainly readers will be happy with." But another part of me knows that when I'm past the stage of writing, the book is gonna have good things about it, bad things about it - probably more bad than good. I just know that. That's who I am.

Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.

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 get off on anticipating and waiting much more than I get off on the actual event.

Hell, I'm going to play pro basketball. I'm going to maybe be famous. I'm going to write books.