My mother loved my father. From my view, she let him get away with too much. It broke my heart to see him in an old people's home and stop being strong and lose his voice.

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?

Do not fall asleep in your enemy's dream.

There is no American history. There is no French history. There is no John Wideman. There are all these dreams that are floating around. People construct them and fight with them and criticize them, and the world goes on. I don't think the stars pay much attention.

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.

There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally.

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