I was influenced growing up by everything from Harlequin romances to Fedor Dostoyevsky and Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and later Lydia Davis, Mary Gaitskill, bell hooks.

My fear was like a stray dog, roving the neighborhood of my life, looking for a new source of worry.

I didn't read about it for school. It was just for myself. I was interested in cults in general but Jonestown was the most interesting of all the cults I studied.

I'm felt I was writing about love and desire and community and belonging and grief and a whole host of other issues. But race is never far from the surface.

I definitely feel like when I write a book it's not my job to police or guide the readers. The book and the characters don't belong to me anymore. If that makes sense.

I'm increasingly less interested in classic storylines and that arc that we have come to expect.

Motherhood. It was hard to get lost in anything else completely when children were 3 years old.

I'm not trying to be coy, but I think everyone notices these things like skin color but some people are more aware that they are noticing them than others, maybe. If that makes sense.

I guess the subject of race is so natural to me I never think of it as hefty. It's something I talk about and joke about and discuss with my loved ones every day of my life.

I don't like stories that are too neat and too resolved. I think resolutions can be deadening for the reader.

I think cults never stop being interesting and I'm intrigued by how we all do a tiny bit of submitting to a larger group - and how they can sneak up on you.

When someone shows you who they are believe them

Accept it all your so called SINS are only a result of your unawareness and nothing else, No sooner you realize this simple fact, you're instantly transformed. Stay Guilt Free, Celebrate Life!

If you’re very passionate about your dream - chase it. It’s attainable.

Let one persuade many, and he becomes confirmed and convinced, and cares for no better evidence.

We usually get what we anticipate.

It is only your mental habits and your selected memories of how you think things are that keep you from moulding things in your life in a more harmonious way.

You will not find what you want in the world, only in the Father.

Racial understanding is not something we find, but something that we must create. Through education, we seek to change attitudes.

I realized early that unless you're willing to kill the innocent, you can't win.

He robs present ills of their power who has perceived their coming beforehand.