People would say, "You know, Rich, it's nature. Birds of a feather flock together." I have to point out to them that, no, that's not the case.

The interesting thing about Georgia is, Atlanta is teeming with middle-class black people and black people with money - and yet there is still segregation.

I don't want to live in a monoculture of any kind. I don't want to live in a wealthy monoculture, a black monoculture. I don't want to live in an elitist, progressive monoculture.

I always say that you should remake flops, not hits.

By 2042, whites will no longer be the American majority.

With growing and intermixed minority populations, our democracy can not work optimally unless all people are integrated as full and equal members, and I think our collective freedom requires that.

There is tremendous long-term harm when Americans accept ethnic and class balkanization as a de facto fixture of American life. I think that impoverishes our understanding of each other.

I concede that segregation can allay social tensions immediately, but it further debilitates us in the long run.

Of course, there isn't really a black population in Idaho or Utah.

I hope we have American-topias.

The flame is faith.

I really like Septimus Heap. he is my favorite guy in the story. I should make you all read it.

I continue to work on plays, but I've always felt that you could put a note in a bottle and send it offshore, and you'd have as much chance communicating with people.

What was given to us by the past is adapted to the possibilities of the future.

I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.

When you're the strong one, people don't give you permission to hurt.

The best of our best, without Jesus, looks like a pile of crap compared to Him.

You don't have to do those things. You don't have to become a hero, Seth.

I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on.

I am leaving the office but am not leaving the battle for peace.