Children's books deal in idealized worlds, so they're a document of how our notion of ideal worlds has changed over time. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Genre is a useful thing when organizing texts in a bookshop but immaterial to the particular exchange between writer and reader. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
You can't control what's going to happen to the book you're about to publish. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Children's literature - the product of adult guesswork - often fails to account for its audience's slippery grasp on the world. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Children's picture books are a unique record of social evolution: in gender roles and racial politics, as is much discussed, but also… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
It's not that a literature for children of color doesn't exist; it's that so much of the extant literature is lacking in… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
I do think that I have a sensitivity to the depictions of maybe all minorities in literature. And I think that the… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Wishing there were more children's books like 'The Snowy Day' is a bit like wishing there were more grownup books like 'Anna… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Instead of a passion for the Yankees or fly-fishing or birding, I want to pass on to my sons a love of… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
In a strange way, Louise Erdrich is perhaps our least famous great American writer; she is not reclusive, but she is reticent,… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
History is a story like any other, but black history is a story so devoid of logic that it frustrates the young… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Writing takes gall. I like to think that's true even for writers with several books under their belt, writers who have been… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
There are probably some readers who don't want a great American writer to acknowledge that cleaning out the bottom drawer of the… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
I am a binge reader, with a tendency to throw myself at a writer, immerse myself in their work. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Blackness, any sort of difference, is not a burden. Relegating blackness or other sorts of difference to serious books that explicitly engage… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
When you are what we call a 'minority writer,' a writer of color, a writer of any kind of difference, there is some kind… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Fashion has underscored the interchangeability of men for a long time, maybe from the outset. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
I've spent many hours of my life browsing in stores. At 21, I admired clothes I couldn't afford. At 30, I bought them. At… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
With respect to parenting, biological age is not, for men, the concern it is for women. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
That's part of fashion's promise: that a girlfriend or boyfriend or a promotion are just one tie or sweater or pair of shoes away. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
I do think that I have a sensitivity to the depictions of maybe all minorities in literature. And I think that the experience of… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
When you are young, it's deeply annoying to be told that certain things are a condition of your youth. There's almost always some condescension… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Children's literature - the product of adult guesswork - often fails to account for its audience's slippery grasp on the world. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
“One of her most reached-for truisms was that some percentage of jobs were indistinguishable from one another, as they all involved the sending of… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Writing takes gall. I like to think that's true even for writers with several books under their belt, writers who have been doing it… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
Genre is a useful thing when organizing texts in a bookshop but immaterial to the particular exchange between writer and reader. — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
