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.

So much emotion goes into writing fiction.

One sees a trend in our political and legal cultures toward treating religious beliefs as arbitrary and unimportant, a trend supported by a rhetoric that implies that there is something wrong with religious devotion.

I think that black fiction authors have to work very hard to avoid being typed as seeking only a black audience.

Every conflict plagues the peace that follows it.

I think of my novels as entertainments.

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.