I wrote poems and an essay about that weird language. We still remember it to a certain extent, and it still comes up when we're all together. It's so fundamental to how I think.

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.

I do the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle every morning to keep the old grey matter ticking.

Look at your goals. Look at your behavior. Does your behavior match your goals?

You can't just carry everyone else's hopes and fears around in your backpack and expect to stand up straight.

We don't evaluate what's right and wrong, we live in a society. We live in a culture. We have to live within the culture.

Language is the instrument in all cases and can language be trusted?If it were not for language, could we lie?

She liked the way he smelled - kind of free and open, like driving with the windows down at night.

If you're any good at all, you know you can be better.

It is sometimes necessary to repeat what all know. All mapmakers should place the Mississippi in the same location and avoid originality.

Not even my parents know how I vote.