He hovered on unexceptionality.

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

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

“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

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

“Is this the truth of our historic encounter?”

— Colson Whitehead

“The Great War had always been between the white and the black. It always would be. Cora”

— Colson Whitehead

“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

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

“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

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

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

There's always an attack on the sophomore novel from some quarters.

— Colson Whitehead

“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

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

Schools don't teach American history that well, especially a lot of black American history.

— Colson Whitehead