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

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.

The hardship, the pain, the suffering of my brother and my son in prison, that's absolutely their experience, that's not mine. I don't get any credit for enduring that. I never give myself any credit for enduring that.

I'm still vulnerable and still weak.

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

That split is inside all Americans. There are contradictions inside all of us about color and race. We've learned to cover them up and live with them and pretend that deep cleavage is not there. We all bear that illness.