I think of writers as explorers, not necessarily as detectives. So there is certainly detecting that is going on - they're explorers.

The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you must do every day - every morning or every night, whatever time it is that you have. Ideally, the time you decide on is also the time when you do your best work.

A man's bookcase will tell you everything you'll ever need to know about him

This is all you have to do. Sit down once a day to the novel and start working without internal criticism, without debilitating expectations, without the need to look at your words as if they were already printed and bound. The beginning is only a draft. Drafts are imperfect by definition.

I would have been completely brainwashed by this lopsided and racist view of the world if it weren't for my father. He was a deep thinker and an irrepressible problem solver. He was a Black Socrates, asking why and then spoiling ready-made replies.

Your book grows. The early part of your book is growing still while you are writing the later part of your book.

Black men of our day were never told, The sky's the limit. ... We could aspire to Joe Louis but never Henry Ford.