When I am writing a story it feels as real as the life I am experiencing off the page. It's an emotional illusion, I guess.

If there was ever a time to boil up some grits it is now.

I take mentoring very seriously and I am on the board of an organization called Girls Write Now, where we match teen girls and writing mentors because it changes their lives.

Remember that the writing itself is good for you. If your story is so close to home that you are afraid to write it, it probably means you need to write it.

When you write a novel, you make other people see your imaginary friends.

I take mentoring very seriously and as a result I hardly get any work done during the school year.

This is what I have come to know: Our past is never passed and there is no such thing as moving on. But there is this telling and there is such a thing as passing through.

When it comes to memoir, we want to catch the author in a lie. When we read fiction, we want to catch the author telling the truth.

Abandonment doesn't have the sharp but dissipating sting of a slap. It's like a punch to the gut, bruising your skin and driving the precious air from your body.

My first novel, Leaving Atlanta, took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead.

It's funny how three or four notes of anger can be struck at once, creating the perfect chord of fury.

It was a great time to grow up in Chicago. It was the mid-80s, and we had the 85 Bears and the Michael Jordan era.

Nor myrtle--which means chiefly love: and love Is something awful which one dare not touch So early o' mornings.

The United States is sending its most powerful drone to Libya. That’s a long trip for Joe Biden.

See, well ya see, the thing is, he should have caught that ball. But the ball is bigger than his hands.

I have a dialect myself; it's more pronounced, because I have studied theatre and been in England. It's half-British, half-Indian.

Make your race a playground, not a proving ground.

I'd like to have a family.

The dignity of man lies in his ability to face reality in all its meaninglessness.

There's been a sea change in our focus on corporate ethics. We've made more progress in the last three years than the previous 30.