I think, and a lot of that has to do with where I grew up in California; [status] isn't something I think about that much.

All this angst, all this stuff we all feel, is just tied to making art. It's so ancient.

I don't write to put it in a drawer, I hope that people see it.

People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.

I'm not searching for the truth.That's too much pressure .

Why are the mainstream buzz things rarely contemporary? It doesn't happen very often. It's hard to feel culpable or implicated or even apathetic.

I think there's nothing new going on. Except that, you're even more public than you've ever been.There's some good and some bad to that.

If New York is the City That Never Sleeps, then Los Angeles is the City That's Always Passed Out on the Couch.

It's so hard to say what you really mean. For any number of reasons: to protect yourself, or if you just can't find the words.

Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.

In The Sellout I tried to capture how we can talk and see race, how we see urbanity, and how we see our history.

We are much more than pretty... we are wonderfully made. We are much more than likable... we are deeply loved. We are much more than ok... we are the daughters of the King.

When the Nobel Committee chose to honor me, the road I had chosen of my own free will became a less lonely path to follow.

After being in the creative, hermetic state I have been in, coming out has been painful, but it is getting easier.

Thinking men and women the world over are beginning to realize that patriotism is too narrow and limited a conception to meet the necessities of our time.

In Mexico, theater is very underground, so if youre a theater actor its very difficult to make a living. But its also a very beautiful pathway to knowledge and to an open education.

Your own imagination as to the true ability of the permaculture design system, you need to trust the system and stick to main frame basics with profound and thorough thinking while trusting yourself.

Film fixes a precise visual image in the viewer's head. In fiction, you just hope you're precise enough to convey the intended effect.

In my view all salvation for philosophy may be expected to come from Darwin's theory

My weapon has always been language, and I've always used it, but it has changed. Instead of shaping the words like knives now, I think they're flowers, or bridges.

Ray Charles, in his own way, it's like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.