Maybe I'm just sensitive to that person who's on the outside.

I think, and a lot of that has to do with where I grew up in California; [status] isn't something I think about that much.

If New York is the City That Never Sleeps, then Los Angeles is the City That's Always Passed Out on the Couch.

The other thing [my psychology professor] said to me was that I was always very mindful of the person who was away from the group, that I was always trying to bring them in.

Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.

That's such a great book [Bloods]. That's a perfect way to articulate this thing that we're talking about. Just because someone is a black general, doesn't mean this person is going to have a certain outlook on it.

There are always so many things happening [to us] at one time. We read Isherwood's A Single Man in class, and we had to ask: How is he talking about all this stuff: teaching, being lonely, all his memories, all at the same time? He's telling us: This is where my head is at, let me be straightforward. And of course, try be artful about it.