Contradictions make people feel off. They'll say, "Hey, you just said this and now this person is doing that, how is that possible?"

All this angst, all this stuff we all feel, is just tied to making art. It's so ancient.

I don't write to put it in a drawer, I hope that people see it.

People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.

I'm not searching for the truth.That's too much pressure .

Why are the mainstream buzz things rarely contemporary? It doesn't happen very often. It's hard to feel culpable or implicated or even apathetic.

I think there's nothing new going on. Except that, you're even more public than you've ever been.There's some good and some bad to that.

If New York is the City That Never Sleeps, then Los Angeles is the City That's Always Passed Out on the Couch.

It's so hard to say what you really mean. For any number of reasons: to protect yourself, or if you just can't find the words.

Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.

In The Sellout I tried to capture how we can talk and see race, how we see urbanity, and how we see our history.

A single candle has the power to light up a room, a single star has the power to light up the sky, and a single soul has the power to light up the world.

Being relevant to your customers only when you’re trying to sell something means choosing to be irrelevant to them for the rest of the time.

Teachers have a chance to mold someone, inspire them. I hope all teachers realize that.

personally I don't trust literature that soothes people's consciences.

When I was to come to Washington the first time as Music Director of the Boston Symphony, Mrs. Johnson phoned us to find out if they could give us a party and who we would like to meet.

No man has ever ruled other men for their own good.

Every show on television has a downward trend because there are so many more things to watch. You can only deal with what is the benchmark of a hit series and 'Survivor' clearly remains a hit series.

Thanksgiving day. Let us all give humble, hearty, and sincere thanks now, but the turkeys.

And when things are not going well in Toronto, you're going to hear about it. And you're going to say things are not good at all, where it's really not that bad.

You start talking about God and a lot of people are going to become very defensive.