“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
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 started writing regularly for 'The Atlantic' roughly around the time that Barack Obama got inaugurated. — 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
I think at places like 'Slate' or the magazine where I work, there was a really poor record of hiring African-American writers.… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I don't want them to read what I'm writing and say, 'I think that's right,' and agree with me. I want them… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
As a writer, I was shaped by a desire to write for black people. That things were not being represented. That was… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“… writing is always some form of interpretation, some form of translating the specificity of one’s roots or expertise or even one’s… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
My job is to look out on that world that I write about and be as honest as I possibly can about… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Obama's presence opened a new field for writers, and what began as curiosity about the man himself eventually expanded into curiosity about… — 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
I feel some need to represent where I'm from. But ultimately, I think my only real responsibility is to - as much… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“From hip-hop, I drew my earliest sense of what writing should mean. Grammar was never the point. Grammar was for the schoolmen… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“She also taught me to write, by which I mean not simply organizing a set of sentences into a series of paragraphs,… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Even in those pieces that seemed to be casually tossed off, I was always searching for the right word, for the proper… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Typically, there's this perspective among writers - and black writers: there's this idea that there is one person - and maybe beyond… — 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
