I write the way women have babies. You don't know it's going to be like that. If you did, there's no way you would go through with it.

If you take racism away from certain people - I mean, vitriolic racism as well as the sort of social racist - if you take that away, they may have to face something really terrible, misery, self-misery, and deep pain about who they are.

When you first start writing-and I think it's true for a lot of beginning writers-you're scared to death that if you don't get that sentence right that minute it's never going to show up again. And it isn't. But it doesn't matter-another one will, and it'll probably be better. And I don't mind writing badly for a couple of days because I know I can fix it-and fix it again and again and again, and it will be better.

guileless and without vanity,we were still in love with ourselves then. We felt comfortable in our own skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us, admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could not comprehend this unworthiness.

Today is always here,' said Sethe. 'Tomorrow, never.

What's interesting about writing is the invention, the creative thing. Writing about myself is a yawn.

There is really nothing more to say - except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.