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.

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.

Not everyone has been a bully or the victim of bullies, but everyone has seen bullying, and seeing it, has responded to it by joining in or objecting, by laughing or keeping silent, by feeling disgusted or feeling interested.

Most of us don't have to worry about being shot of we poke our noses outside. So we are comfortable, but the people I'm writing about are definitely not comfortable, and being shot while they're still inside is a good possibility.

Tolerance, like any aspect of peace, is forever a work in progress, never completed, and, if we're as intelligent as we like to think we are, never abandoned.

Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable.

He was like me - a kindred spirit crazy enough to keep on trying.