“My reasons for writing had to be my own, divorced from expectation.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
My chief identity, to my mind, was not 'writer' but 'college dropout.' — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?” Bellow quipped. Tolstoy was “white,” and so Tolstoy “mattered,” like everything else that was white… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I write what I write in the way that I write it. I'm not being abstract, you know. I'm talking about something… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
When you write, you're inside the project. You can't really think about the reception. It has to be worth it even if… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“I devoured the books because they were the rays of light peeking out from the doorframe, and perhaps past that door there… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The only people who usually have input on my writing are my wife and my editor. I'm not in conversation with anyone… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
You may not be able to change the course of government, but you can achieve some peace. And books were the path… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Every writer dreams of having the ability to hold forth for 8,000 words and pull all these different forms together: history, reportage,… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“To Trump whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“The focus on one sector of Trump voters—the white working class—is puzzling, given the breadth of his white coalition. Indeed, there is a kind… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
I think 'Dear White People,' the show, is a tremendous artistic achievement. It's always hinting that there is something beyond the pleading and wokeness,… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself. The… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It's the weight on our shoulders. That is what's actually different. We… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
Like a lot of people, I'm very, very concerned about Senator Clinton's record. I'm very, very concerned about where her positions were in the… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“I drove away, as always, thinking of you. I do not believe that we can stop them, Samori, because they must ultimately stop themselves.… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices—more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
The mainstream sort of presentation of the civil rights movement was not something that I directly inherited. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
[Grew up in Hawaii] that gave [Barack Obama] a kind of optimism, an ability to see things, you know, and frankly, an ability to… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“I sensed the schools were hiding something, drugging us with false morality so that we would not see, so that we did not ask:… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
You don't make a case for reparations thinking, 'Oh yeah, people are gonna love this.' I didn't see that coming. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“And I know that there are black boys and black girls out there lost in a Bermuda triangle of the mind or stranded in… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
