I don't write books because I have answers. I write books because I have questions. What we are is the questions that we ask, not the answers that we provide. It's all about the process of self-examination. I think that's what the best writing always contains.

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.

When you're at the basketball court watching a game, one person may be talking about a fight he had with his wife, another is talking about the last hard-on he got, someone else is talking about the presidential election. The language and the tone and the voice - I'd love to be able to capture that spontaneity.

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

I believe - what did Faulkner say? "The past is not even past."

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

That's one of the beauties, I think, of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy everybody and it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it.