As a writer, you don't know what the hell you're doing. You're just doing it. You hope it works out well.

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

Even in my adult years, when I heard a white person speaking in a Southern accent I was initially suspicious.

I can't pretend that I did one really awful thing - I took a bite out of the apple but now I'm never going to sin again.

My father combined many of the elements that were feared in the culture, but also he was a warm figure, a figure we needed. We depended on him to give us a little bit of strength and courage.

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.