One of the problems with a lot of "confessional" writing is that it starts and stops with the confessional and doesn't really tie the "I" into a "we" at all. I'm still surprised at how mad critics get at that kind of confessional writing.

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

One of the problems with a lot of "confessional" writing is that it starts and stops with the confessional and doesn't really tie the "I" into a "we" at all. I'm still surprised at how mad critics get at that kind of confessional writing.

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

I'm an obsessive writer who needs and loves revision. Writing helps me learn and helps me teach.

I'm a black writer from Mississippi. That's what I most consider myself.

Long Division has a lot of Afrosurrealist impulses. I think the book was more Afrofuturist when it was like 700 pages.