By its very nature, the novel indicates that we are becoming. There is no final solution. There is no last word.

Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.

Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.

Writing is a struggle against silence.

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States.

Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history.

I need, therefore I imagine.

One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.

What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

The illusion is time itself.

Adoration is a sign of an infant civilization.

Destruction is easily reversed, Brain drainage howbeit is a civilization killer

Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine!

I see nuclear weapons as the ultimate evil, not just evil, but the ultimate evil with the potential to make life unlivable on this planet.

Welfare is ... the victim of national compassion fatigue.

Tell you what I like the best - 'Long about knee-deep in June, 'Bout the time strawberries melts On the vine, - some afternoon Like to jes' git out and rest, And not work at nothin' else!

You have to go create your own fire and people are going to come to you if you create it.

It behooves a prudent person to make trial of everything before arms.

I spend shockingly little time thinking about real-world stuff.