People Think That There Is A Country

It's Not A Matter Of Whether The Reviews Of Your Books Are Good Or Bad, It's About Being Taken Seriously, Both As A Woman Writer And As A Writer Of Color. Also, It Worries Me When People Point To A Couple Of Women Writers Or Writers Of Color Who Get Some Attention - And I Am Sometimes Pulled Into That Category - To Prove That Others Are Getting A Fair Shot. It's Like Those People Who Keep Saying That Racism No Longer Exists In This Country Because Barack Obama Was A President Of The United States.

The Best Moment In Writing Any Book Is When You Just Can't Wait To Get Back To The Writing, When You Can't Wait To Re-enter That Fictional Place, When Your Fictional Town Feels Even More Real Than The Town Where You Actually Live.

I Also Know There Are Timeless Waters, Endless Seas, And Lots Of People In This World Whose Names Don't Matter To Anyone But Themselves. I Look Up At The Sky And I See You There.

There Are Many Possible Interpretations Of What It Means To Create Dangerously, And Albert Camus, Like The Poet Osip Mandelstam, Suggests That It Is Creating As A Revolt Against Silence, Creating When Both The Creation And The Reception, The Writing And The Reading, Are Dangerous Undertakings, Disobedience To A Directive.

People Are Just Too Hopeful, And Sometimes Hope Is The Biggest Weapon Of All To Use Against Us. People Will Believe Anything.