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" Generally, I walk around in a glum mood. "

Colson Whitehead

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" I think a joke is a form of truth-telling. A good joke that's absurd contains elements of our daily darkness and also a possibility to escape that darkness. So, for me, humor is an attempt to capture everyday tragedy and everyday hopeful moments that we experience all of the time. "

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" I try to have each book be an antidote to the one before. "

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" I live in Brooklyn. I moved here 14 years ago for the cheap rent. It was a little embarrassing because I was raised in Manhattan, and so I was a bit of a snob about the other boroughs. "

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" There's not a lot of good TV. "

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" Part of being in New York is being able to brag about what used to be there. "

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" Zombies are a great rhetorical prop to talk about people and paranoia, and they are a good vehicle for my misanthropy. "

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" I'm someone who just likes being in my cave and thinking up weird stuff. "

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" I'm raising kids, and so much of American culture sustains me and gives me things to think about and work on. "

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" I usually have two or three ideas floating around. When I have free time, the one I end up thinking most about is the one I end up pursuing. "

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" I was allowed to write about race using an elevator metaphor because of Toni Morrison and David Bradley and Ralph Ellison. Hopefully, me being weird allows someone who's 16 and wanting to write inspires them to have their own weird take on the world, and they can see the different kinds of African American voices being published. "

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" The Declaration of Independence is that sacred American text so full of meaning and purpose and yet quite empty if you examine it and pull it apart because the words 'All Men' exclude a vast number of citizens. "

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" In America, when you hear about the Underground Railroad, it's so evocative. You think it's a literal subway for a few minutes before your teacher goes on and describes where it actually was. "

Colson Whitehead

" Each book requires a different kind of treatment and structural gambit. "

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" A lot of my books have started with an abstract premise. "

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" I wanted to be one of these multidisciplinary critics who is doing music one day, TV the next, and books the next. "

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" Schools don't teach American history that well, especially a lot of black American history. "

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" My mom's mother was from Virginia, but I don't feel much of a tie. I'm very much anti-South for many, many reasons. Whenever I go down there, people are always looking at me funny, you know. "

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" Monsters are a storytelling tool, like domestic realism and close third. "

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" I wrote a book of essays about New York called 'The Colossus of New York,' but it's not about - you know, when I'm writing about rush hour or Central Park, it's not a black Central Park, it's just Central Park, and it's not a black rush hour, it's just rush hour. "

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" Write what you know. "

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" If you're writing a detective novel or horror or sci-fi, you want to expand or reinvigorate the genre in your own little way. "

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" As always, a lot of bad books will be published. Some good books will be published, and you have to seek them out. "

Colson Whitehead

" I envied kids who played soccer and football, but that was not my gig. "

Colson Whitehead

" If the world's nations can set aside their petty bickering over religion, politics, and territory, certainly I can 'get that Olympic Spirit' and rise above my prejudices. "

Colson Whitehead

" The idea of sacrifice is integral to the John Henry myth. Heroic figures have to die in order for us to have our stories; we live and stand on their bones. "

Colson Whitehead

" The movie 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' was a sacred text in my household. "

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" I'm not a representative of blackness, and I'm not a healer. "

Colson Whitehead

" There are good writers and bad writers. It's hard to find writers who really speak to you, but the work is out there. "

Colson Whitehead

" Once I got to college, it seemed that the Hamptons were a little bit too posh for me and didn't represent the kind of values I was embracing in my late teens. So, I didn't go out there, except to visit my parents, for a long time. And then, after 9/11, I discovered it was a nice, mellow place to hang out. "

Colson Whitehead

" I'm always trying to switch voices and genres. "

Colson Whitehead