Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can't even see the mountain for the clouds. But you know what? ... The clouds never cover the head. His head pokes through, because the clouds let him; they don't wrap him up. They let him keep his head high, free.

I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.

I am a moralist. I worry.

Race is the least reliable information you can have about someone. It's real information, but it tells you next to nothing.

Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.

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.

The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over.