My stories are character driven.

life is like a jigsaw puzzle, you have to see the whole picture, then put it together piece by piece!

Too many of us are hung up on what we don't have, can't have, or won't ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that same energy – if not less of it – doing, or at least trying to do, some of the things we really want to do.

I want to push the fast-forward button until I get back to happy.

I used to get a lot of letters from prisoners. It used to get on my nerves. Especially family members. Everybody's innocent.

Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.

I don't trust white critics' judgment about most things that deal with black life, particularly when a black person is the creator.