“The ruthless engine of cotton required its fuel of African bodies. Crisscrossing the ocean, ships brought bodies to work the land and… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
The fallout from slavery is ongoing. I am not sure the issue of race in America will ever be completely solved. — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
For years I felt that I wasn't ready to take on slavery. It's a huge topic, and I didn't want to mess… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“How to undo slavery's injury to the mental faculties–so many freed men continued to be enslaved by the horrors they'd endured.” — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“Slavery as a moral issue never interested Ethel. If God had not meant for Africans to be enslaved, they wouldn’t be in… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Slavery was a violent, brutal, immoral system, and in accurately depicting how it worked, you have to include that, obviously. Or else… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“White man trying to kill you slow every day, and sometimes trying to kill you fast. Why make it easy for him?… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Being a slave meant never having the stability of knowing your family would be together as many years as God designed it… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“it means what it say," Ethel said. "It means that a Hebrew may not enslave a Hebrew. But the sons of Ham… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“When the slaves finished, they had stripped the fields of their color. It was a magnificent operation, from seed to bale, but… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Being a slave meant never having the stability of knowing your family would be together as many years as God designed it… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a sport centered… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
I want to keep growing as a writer. I find myself doing unexpected projects and sort of challenging my idea of where I am… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
“Every Tuesday, James Fulton (and later, Orville Lever) stood in the downstairs drawing room and lectured on the intricacies of his science. Lectured on… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
I started writing in the '90s, so I was free to just have an eccentric career and not conform to some idea of what… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
“The Great War had always been between the white and the black. It always would be. Cora” — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
“The worst sort of scoundrels took up the chase. Drunkards, incorrigibles, poor whites who didn’t even own shoes delighted in this opportunity to scourge… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you. You can’t rush inspiration. … Once your subject finds you, it’s like falling… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
“its terms? Homer watched her as she dressed, like a valet who had waited on her since the cradle. “I’m caught,” Cora said. “You… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
These days I find myself wanting to avoid being pigeon-holed, ghettoized, held in a different category than other authors. And when people ask me… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in an alternative… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
“All he felt now was envy. These people had expectations. Of the world, of the future, it didn't matter--expectation was such an innovative concept… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
Growing up as a product of the black civil-rights movement, I had a lot of different models for black weirdness, whether it's Richard Pryor… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
Schools don't teach American history that well, especially a lot of black American history. — Colson Whitehead Copy Share
