Colson Whitehead Quotes

Anytime an African-American writes an unconventional novel, the writer gets compared to Ellison. But that's O.K. I am working in the African-American literary tradition. That's my aim and what I see as my mission.

• American

I have a good poker face because I am half-dead inside.

• Good

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.

• Writing

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.

• Live

Generally, I walk around in a glum mood.

• Mood

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.

• Different
• Country
• Explore

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

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

• Good
• Bad

What isn't said is as important as what is said.

• Important

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

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.

• Good
• Book
• Nice

I was inspired to become a writer by horror movies and science fiction.

• Science
• Inspired

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.

• People
• Up
• Time

If you write about race in 1850, you end up talking about race today because in many ways, so little has changed.

• Up
• Today

There's not a lot of good TV.

• Good

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.

• Words

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.

• King
• Slavery

I write at home. I like to be able to take a nap, watch TV, make a sandwich, and if I wake up and don't feel like working, I'm not going to bang my head on my desk all day: I'll go out and do something else.

• Up
• Home

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.

• America
• Teacher

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.

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.

• Ignore

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.

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.

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.

• Thinking
• Technology
• Present