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

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.

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

So much emotion goes into writing fiction.

Every conflict plagues the peace that follows it.

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.

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.