So much emotion goes into writing fiction.

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.

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.

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

Rumor is rarely more interesting than fact, but it is always more readily available.

The very aspect of religions that many of their critics most fear - that the religiously devout, in the name of their faith, take positions that differ from approved state policy - is one of their strengths.

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.