Even when it comes to writing fiction, how do you encompass all this stuff that's right on the tip of your tongue? You have to fold that into what you're working on.

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.

To become richer, earn more. To appear richer, move into a poorer neighborhood.

The most important thing is our dignity. If we have that we can survive on bread and water.

Where do I begin and end in space? I have relations to the sun and air which are just as vital parts of my existence as my heart.

Profaneness is a brutal vice. He who indulges in it is no gentleman, I care not what his stamp may be in society; I care not what clothes he wears, or what culture he boasts.

If I was going to make one rule change, I would bring the DH to the National League.

Not even nothingness preceded life. Nothingness owes its very idea to existence.

I'm basically a very happy person and I don't have to be anybody else.

Don't marry so you can stop pursuing women. Marry so you can perfect the pursuit of ONE woman for a lifetime.

I have been baptized twice- once in water...once in flame.

Whenever the human race assembles to a number exceeding four, it cannot stand free speech.