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.

In real life there are indeed black people who have been in the middle class for generations, but in entertainment it's as if they don't exist.

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.

So much emotion goes into writing fiction.

In contemporary American culture, the religions are more and more treated as just passing beliefs - almost as fads - rather than as the fundaments upon which the devout build their lives.

We live today in a world in which nobody believes choices should have consequences. But may I tell you the great secret that our culture seeks to deny? You cannot escape the consequences of your choices. Time runs in only one direction.

Lots of white people think black people are stupid. They are stupid themselves for thinking so, but regulation will not make them smarter.