At one time if you were a black writer you had to be one of the best writers in the world to be published. You had to be great. Now you can be good. Mediocre. And that's good.

Love, as the poet says, is like the spring. It grows on you and seduces you slowly and gently, but it holds tight like the roots of a tree. You don't know until you're ready to go that you can't move, that you would have to mutilate yourself in order to be free. That's the feeling. It doesn't last, at least it doesn't have to. But it holds on like a steel claw in your chest. Even if the tree dies, the roots cling to you. I've seen men and women give up everything for love that once was.

I used to worry about money and career and what was going to happen. How was I gonna succeed or fail in the world? And I thought about it enough that I'm no longer worried about it. I'm not... I don't worry about what's gonna happen in my life. I don't worry about telling me about dying, my own mortality. That's a given.

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

I've always loved science fiction. I think the smartest writers are science fiction writers dealing with major things.

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

I believe that a writer has to tell what they think is the truth in a human experience. The truth of the human experience cannot escape the political.