To be black and an intellectual in America is to live in a box. On the box is a label, not of my own choosing.

To be black and an intellectual in America is to live in a box. On the box is a label, not of my own choosing.

Love is a gift we deliver when we would rather not.

Even in 2012, if there's a black character in the movies or on television that's a professional, if we even hear about their backgrounds they're always 'up from the streets.

Teasing out the way the world might look through another's eyes is what makes the creative process so fascinating and enjoyable.

I find it hard to think of myself as selling books. I don't even have a Web site. I want to sit and write, not sell.

This trivializing rhetoric runs the subtle but unmistakable message: pray if you like, worship if you must, but whatever you do, do not on any account take your religion seriously.