In my years, I have seen that people must be their own gods and make their own good fortune. The bad will come or not come anyway.

I'm trying to speak--to write-the truth. I"m trying to be clear. I'm not interested in being fancy, or even original. Clarity and truth will be plenty, if I can only achieve them.

I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure.

What I'm working on now - I'm back to fantasy, although considering that it's me, I'm turning it into a kind of science fantasy. It's a vampire story - but my vampires are biological vampires. They didn't become vampires because someone bit them; they were born that way.

Listen, no part of me is more definitive of who I am than my brain.

I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you.

...I realized that I knew less about loneliness than I had thought - and much less than I would know when he went away.