I wish every American explored the importance of novel writing, identity, honesty, character and place in fresh-ass ways.

I'm not good enough as a person and definitely not good enough as a writer.

The "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others" essay was so hard to write because of the memories, the sensory stuff, but also because it didn't follow the form of any essay that I've ever read. And the truth that I was exploring necessitated that obliteration of traditional form, I think.

I wanted to create a book that was unafraid of black bodies, yet super interested in thinking about the relationship of love to body and sexuality without relying on tired understandings of "gay" "bi" or "straight."

I wish every American explored the importance of novel writing, identity, honesty, character and place in fresh-ass ways.

First of all, the novel should be a critique of the novels that have come before it in a language that broadens the audience of American literature. Second, it's really got to be invested in a number of what-if questions.

I'm also, than anything else, a teacher and a student. And without the four hours, I'm pretty monsterish. For real.