When People Say You're Charming You Are

At The Time I Was Taught To Read, It Was An Eden-like Time Of My Life. My Mother Adored Me. Everyone Adored Me. So I Associate Reading With Enormous Pleasure.

All Of These Declarations Of What Writing Ought To Be, Which I Had Myself-though, Thank God I Had Never Committed Them To Paper-i Think Are Nonsense. You Write What You Write, And Then Either It Holds Up Or It Doesn't Hold Up. There Are No Rules Or Particular Sensibilities. I Don't Believe In That At All Anymore.

The People Who Invented Race, Who Grouped Us Together As "black," Were Inventing And Categorizing Their Ability To Do Something Vicious And Wrong.

Tomorrow Exists Even Though I May Not Exist In It.

For Me, Writing Isn't A Way Of Being Public Or Private; It's Just A Way Of Being. The Process Is Always Full Of Pain, But I Like That. It's A Reality, And I Just Accept It As Something Not To Be Avoided. This Is The Life I Have. This Is The Life I Write About.