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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.
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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Stephen King in general, as well as films of the apocalypse from the '70s, had a big influence on 'Zone One.'
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 -
I have a good poker face because I am half-dead inside.
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 -
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 -
I try to have each book be an antidote to the one before.
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 -
'Sag Harbor' was a very different book for me. It changed the way I thought about books that I wanted to do.
Colson Whitehead -
The movie 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' was a sacred text in my household.
Colson Whitehead -
In the apocalypse, I think those average, mediocre folks are the ones who are going to live.
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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Generally, I walk around in a glum mood.
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 -
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'm always trying to switch voices and genres.
Colson Whitehead -
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
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I like questions that tee me up to make weird jokes, frankly.
Colson Whitehead -
I've always thought the Nat Turner story to be very interesting.
Colson Whitehead -
In 'John Henry Days,' I was taking my idea of junketeering and sort of blowing it up to absurd extremes.
Colson Whitehead -
What isn't said is as important as what is said.
Colson Whitehead