I'm not a teacher; I'm not a historian. I'm trying to create a world for my characters. — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
If the world's nations can set aside their petty bickering over religion, politics, and territory, certainly I can 'get that Olympic Spirit'… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I've always had a love of cards, ever since I was a little kid. I think poker, as a system, describes the… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Isn't it great when you're a kid and the world is full of anonymous things? Everything is bright and mysterious until you… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I write the books that I'm compelled to and I definitely learn things about the world when I write them, and I… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Best to let the broken glass be broken glass, let it splinter into smaller pieces and dust and scatter. Let the cracks… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
As time went on, we learned to arm ourselves in our different ways. Some of us with real guns, some of us… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Most people say, "Show, don't tell," but I stand by Show and Tell, because when writers put their work out into the… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I was allowed to write about race using an elevator metaphor because of Toni Morrison and David Bradley and Ralph Ellison. Hopefully,… — 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
