Books ARE a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.

Sometimes what I write on the page frightens me, so I feel free when I write, but I don't feel safe.

This is really skin privilege, the ranking of color in terms of its closeness to white people or white-skinned people and its devaluation according to how dark one is and the impact that has on people who are dedicated to the privileges of certain levels of skin color.

Of course I'm a black writer... I'm not just a black writer, but categories like black writer, woman writer and Latin American writer aren't marginal anymore. We have to acknowledge that the thing we call "literature" is more pluralistic now, just as society ought to be. The melting pot never worked. We ought to be able to accept on equal terms everybody from the Hasidim to Walter Lippmann, from the Rastafarians to Ralph Bunche.

I'm not entangled in shaping my work according to other people's views of how I should have done it.

You your own best thing, Sethe. You are.

Political doesn't necessarily mean you have an agenda.