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I have a good poker face because I am half-dead inside.
Colson Whitehead -
Write what you know.
Colson Whitehead
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It's always hard to write and get your words out there, to find an editor, a publisher - readers! - who are going to appreciate them.
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 -
Generally, I walk around in a glum mood.
Colson Whitehead -
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 -
What isn't said is as important as what is said.
Colson Whitehead -
I was inspired to become a writer by horror movies and science fiction.
Colson Whitehead
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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 -
In the 1930s, the government paid writers to interview 80- and 90-year-old former slaves, and I read those accounts. I came away realizing - not surprisingly - that many slave masters were sadists who spent a lot of time thinking up creative ways of hurting people.
Colson Whitehead -
There's not a lot of good TV.
Colson Whitehead -
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 -
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.
Colson Whitehead -
In fifth grade, we did 10 minutes on slavery and 40 minutes on Abraham Lincoln, and in 10th grade you might do 10 minutes on the civil rights era and 40 minutes on Martin Luther King, and that's it.
Colson Whitehead
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I like to explore different ideas of race, how the concept of race has evolved in the country. It's one thing I enjoy talking about, but I don't feel compelled to talk about it.
Colson Whitehead -
Part of being in New York is being able to brag about what used to be there.
Colson Whitehead -
I never actually went anywhere when I was a journalist. I was a critic, and I just sort of got stuff in the mail and chatted about it.
Colson Whitehead -
I do write about race a lot, but I don't think writers - of any shade or background or whatever - have to write about certain subjects.
Colson Whitehead -
I enjoy thinking about how race plays out over the centuries, how technology evolves, how cities transform themselves. These subjects are present in some of my books and absent in others.
Colson Whitehead -
Growing up devouring horror comics and novels, and being inspired to become a writer because of horror novels, movies, and comic books, I always knew I was going to write a horror novel.
Colson Whitehead
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I try to keep each different book different from the last. So 'Sag Harbor' is very different from 'Apex Hides the Hurt;' 'The Intuitionist,' which is kind of a detective novel, is very different from 'John Henry Days.' I'm just trying to keep things rich for me creatively and for the readers who follow me.
Colson Whitehead -
People don't like it when you compare the miracle of childbirth to writing a book, but I think there is some overlap in the two because they are both pure agony.
Colson Whitehead -
If self-absorption, vague yearnings, and a nagging sense of incompleteness are sins, then surely I will burn for all eternity, and I will save you a seat.
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