We can look at history and see that [political turmoil is] fertile ground for art.

I think often if people don't have a lot of experience with a particular type of person or a particular type of brain, they can make dangerous assumptions. That's one of the reasons that I'm so interested in contradicting and troubling held thoughts about black women.

I spent a lot of time trying to layer upon layer upon layer as I wrote. I think that's often the fear of a writer, that little nuances won't get picked up.

I think that we need to make it our goal to define freedom for ourselves.

I also think that [political turmoil] gives artists something, a way of kind of processing.

We kind of have to rewrite our own stories and our own ways of being free.

Sometimes I feel as though I'm trying to take a hit for the team so that other people then can move forward. I'm like, "Look, I just laid out all of my stuff, so what's the worst that can happen?".