I'm interested in the way in which the past affects the present and I think that if we understand a good deal more about history, we automatically understand a great more about contemporary life.

Women's rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about us; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.

Freedom is choosing your responsibility. It's not having no responsibilitie s; it's choosing the ones you want.

I always start out with an idea, even a boring idea, that becomes a question I don't have answers to.

Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers.

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

My father saw two black men lynched on his street in Cartersville, as a child. And I think seeing two black businessmen - not vagrants - hanging from trees as a child was traumatic for him.