Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. That's one of the beauties of African American life. There was this thing… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Hell, I'm going to play pro basketball. I'm going to maybe be famous. I'm going to write books. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I don't tell everything. I want the reader to have the feeling that maybe they know the whole truth, but they don't. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
A lot of people think the best work I've done was nonfiction - the 'Brothers and Keepers' book. But I think of… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Remember that a book is many drafts - mine certainly are. It's improvisation. It's as much jazz and the way we talk… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
The title of my book is 'American Histories,' plural. And as far as I'm concerned, my reading of history is it is… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
As a reader, I do not like to have everything handed to me. Because after a while it gets formulaic and I'm… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
My books are not about how it feels to be a black man. My books are about how it feels to be… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I don't write books because I have answers. I write books because I have questions. What we are is the questions that… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Writing 'Hoop Roots' was a substitute or a surrogate activity. I can't play anymore - my body won't cooperate - so in… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
When I'm writing, I'm thinking, "Well, this might be a book that I'll always be happy with, and certainly readers will be… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
My mother loved my father. From my view, she let him get away with too much. It broke my heart to see him in… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Too much is made for us; too much is given to us - even those of us who are underprivileged. The poverty is given… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
A great artist transforms our world, removes scales from our eyes, plugs from our ears, gloves from our fingertips, teaches us to perceive reality… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
That's what writing is: it's imagining that you can make a world. That's what basketball is, too: it's imagining the game as a world. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I'm very hard-nosed and cold-blooded and I can walk past a drowning man. If I have someplace else to go, well, tough s**t. I… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I get off on anticipating and waiting much more than I get off on the actual event. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
You have to be a minor superhero just to get to be a dignified man, and that's kind of exacerbated for men of color. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Stories are told over time, and so they naturally accrue meanings. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
That's been my routine for years and years... Up early before everybody else, before I get connected, before I get bugged, before I have… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
My father was intelligent and closed-mouthed. He knew a lot more than what he was ever going to tell you. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
What I wanted to do in talking about basketball in 'Hoop Roots' was retrieve the game as something to participate in, not to watch. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. That's one of the beauties of African American life. There was this thing called slavery… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
