The promised land guarantees nothing. It is only an opportunity, not a deliverance.

Freedom always carries a burden of proof, always throws us back on ourselves.

If you're getting harassed, it's not helpful to know that racism has generally declined in America, when you're still experiencing it. That is a reality that we're still vulnerable to.

My individuality is my gift to my people.

I wrote a piece in the New York Times back in the Nineties saying that racial discrimination ought to be a criminal offense, not just a civil one. I'm all for the criminalization of discrimination.

Whatever I'm doing, I try to write well. I try to give the reader a nice, clean well-written surface, where the writing is transparent. It probably takes me longer to write things, but it's very important to me that the writing itself be good.

Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesn't come before.