I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.

If you can't count, they can cheat you. If you can't read, they can beat you.

I don't believe any real artists have ever been non-political. They may have been insensitive to this particular plight or insensitive to that, but they were political, because that's what an artist is-a politician.

The theme you choose may change or simply elude you, but being your own story means you can always choose the tone. It also means that you can invent the language to say who are you and what you mean.

What I'm doing ain't about hating White people. It's about loving us.

The Nobel Prize is the best thing that can happen to a writer in terms of how it affects your contracts, the publishers, and the seriousness with which your work is taken. On the other hand, it does interfere with your private life, or it can if you let it, and it has zero effect on the writing. It doesn't help you write better and if you let it, it will intimidate you about future projects.

No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple joy could shake you.