I always think about myself as a writer; that comes out of being a reader first, and I don't think I kind of got to really playing with language in any formal way probably until I was in my mid-twenties.

This country wants to live in the illusion that it is tolerant but also wants to be able to practice intolerance.

Ybon was the one who suggested calling the wait something else. Yeah, like what? Maybe, she said, you could call it life.

So the kind of boy I was, or that I was told to be, you were kind of this like half-gladiator, half-dude who, you know, was supposed to have as many girls as possible and work until your heart exploded, have no fear, you know.

I've always thought that you don't love a country by turning a blind eye to its crimes and to a problem. The way that you love a country is by seeing everything that it's done wrong, all of its mistakes, and still thinking that it's beautiful and that it's worthy.

Nothing more exhilarating ... than saving yourself by the simple act of waking.

I never hear white writers get asked, 'Do you worry about how you represent white people?'