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I try to have each book be an antidote to the one before.
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
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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 -
'Sag Harbor' was a very different book for me. It changed the way I thought about books that I wanted to do.
Colson Whitehead -
In the apocalypse, I think those average, mediocre folks are the ones who are going to live.
Colson Whitehead -
'Driving while black' was taught to me at a young age.
Colson Whitehead -
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.
Colson Whitehead -
I love getting out of the Q train at Union Square. It's such a mix of people, like a party. There's always an errand you can do along there, whether it's picking up contacts or buying poker chips.
Colson Whitehead
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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.
Colson Whitehead -
The movie 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' was a sacred text in my household.
Colson Whitehead -
When I'm working on a book, I try to do eight pages a week. That seems like a good amount. Less than that, I'm not getting a nice momentum, and more than that, I'm probably putting out too much crap.
Colson Whitehead -
I don't generally follow sports. At an early age, I discovered that nature had apportioned me only a small reserve of enthusiasm. Best to ration.
Colson Whitehead -
Write what you know.
Colson Whitehead -
Other people have hang-ups about what's literary or genre or whatever, and that's sort of not my problem. You're supposed to write what you have to write, and you're supposed to keep moving.
Colson Whitehead
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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.
Colson Whitehead -
I started writing in the '90s, so I was free to just have an eccentric career and not conform to some idea of what a black writer has to do. I didn't have the burden of representation.
Colson Whitehead -
I didn't know I was a zombie pedant until I started considering what from the zombie canon to keep in 'Zone One' and what to ignore.
Colson Whitehead -
I'm always trying to switch voices and genres.
Colson Whitehead -
Some people don't like my fiction, because they prefer the nonfiction. But moving around keeps the work fresh for me and, hopefully, for my one or two readers who follow me from book to book!
Colson Whitehead -
I've always had a love of cards, ever since I was a little kid. I think poker, as a system, describes the chaos of the world. Our sudden reversals, our freak streaks of fortune. The belief that the next hand can save you, and the inevitable failure of the next hand to save you. I think that describes my world view pretty well.
Colson Whitehead
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I was always into comic books and horror stories and a huge consumer of pop culture. And then I worked for awhile for 'The Village Voice'.
Colson Whitehead -
I like questions that tee me up to make weird jokes, frankly.
Colson Whitehead -
Generally, I walk around in a glum mood.
Colson Whitehead -
Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in an alternative world where elevator inspectors are important, so you have to establish rules, and part of that is, How do people talk? How do they behave?
Colson Whitehead