Colson Whitehead

“Is this the truth of our historic encounter?”

— Colson Whitehead

“He was a rube, but he was no tourist.”

— Colson Whitehead

If you want to understand America, it's slavery.

— Colson Whitehead

“Racial prejudice rotted one's faculties, he said.”

— Colson Whitehead

You can't rush inspiration.

— Colson Whitehead

“rare frost that morning, the wind howling”

— Colson Whitehead

“They don't give gold bracelets for regrets.”

— Colson Whitehead

Generally, I walk around in a glum mood.

— Colson Whitehead

I admire Vegas's purity, its entirely wholesome artificiality.

— Colson Whitehead

“to the empty space usually reserved for Valentine.”

— Colson Whitehead

“The whites were right to be afraid. One day the system would collapse in blood. An”

— Colson Whitehead

Pain could be killed. Sadness could not, but the drugs did shut its mouth for a time.

— Colson Whitehead

Some books are well-received with critics; other books sell.

— Colson Whitehead

“He possessed a strange facility for the mandatory.”

— Colson Whitehead

Talking about New York is a way of talking about the world.

— Colson Whitehead

“That is how the European tribes operate, she said. If they can’t control it, they destroy it. If”

— Colson Whitehead

I think each book has its own way of accommodating my concerns, whether it's about race, America, technology, the city.

— Colson Whitehead

“The ruthless engine of cotton required its fuel of African bodies. Crisscrossing the ocean, ships brought bodies to work the land and…

— Colson Whitehead

It had been a humdrum couple of days, reaffirming his belief in reincarnation: everything was so boring that this could not be…

— Colson Whitehead

“Tipple sold his success much more effectively than he did. How to get excited about, take pride in something that came so…

— Colson Whitehead

The fallout from slavery is ongoing. I am not sure the issue of race in America will ever be completely solved.

— Colson Whitehead

“In his mind, the business of existence was about minimizing consequences. The plague had raised the stakes, but he had been in…

— Colson Whitehead

“A free black walks different than a slave,” he said. “White people recognize it immediately, even if they don’t know it. Walks…

— Colson Whitehead

I started writing in the '90s, so I was free to just have an eccentric career and not conform to some idea…

— Colson Whitehead

His legs remembered the correct position for squatting down with toys. He played. He fit the round male studs into the round…

— Colson Whitehead

“Patrol was not difficult work. They stopped any niggers they saw and demanded their passes. They stopped niggers they knew to be…

— Colson Whitehead

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

A lot of people, when they first hear about the Underground Railroad, think it really is a subway or a locomotive. When…

— Colson Whitehead

Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you. You can’t rush inspiration. … Once your subject finds you, it’s…

— Colson Whitehead

Being a slave meant never having the stability of knowing your family would be together as many years as God designed it…

— Colson Whitehead

What does the perfect elevator look like, the one that will deliver us from the cities we suffer now, these stunted shacks?…

— Colson Whitehead

“It occurred to her one night that she was one of the vengeful monsters they were scared of: She had killed a…

— Colson Whitehead

“You swallow hard when you discover that the old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy, that the place where you first…

— Colson Whitehead

“You say you know these streets pretty well? The city knows you better than any living person because it has seen you…

— Colson Whitehead

“And that great mixture was brought to America in the holds of slave ships. To the north, the south. Their sons and…

— Colson Whitehead

“Dressed, she’s in front of the mirror. Armed. She puts her face on. In her case, not a matter of cosmetics, but…

— Colson Whitehead

“HE remembered looking "agape" in his encyclopedia volume after he read Dr. King's speech in the DEFENDER. The newspaper ran the address…

— Colson Whitehead

“THE Andersons lived in a lovely clapboard house at the corner of Washington and Main, a few blocks past the hubbub of…

— Colson Whitehead

In keeping with my family's affection for doomed product lines and hexed formats, we purchased a Betamax. The year before, we'd bought…

— Colson Whitehead

“We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It was…

— Colson Whitehead