I tell my students there is such a thing as 'writer's block,' and they should respect it. You shouldn't write through it. It's blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven't got it right now.

I like marriage. The idea.

You looking good." "Devil's confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad.

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

Two parents can't raise a child any more than one. You need a whole community - everybody - to raise a child. And the little nuclear family is a paradigm that just doesn't work. It doesn't work for white people or for black people. Why are we hanging onto it, I don't know. It isolates people into little units - people need a larger unit.

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.

I sometimes lose interest in the characters and get much more interested in the trees and animals.