I always like it when writers posit writing as an act of empathy. It's such a grand turn of phrase, such a noble ideal; empathy is so worth aiming for in life that the same must hold true in art.… — Rumaan Alam Copy Share Image
If writing really is empathy, then understanding your place in society might actually help you achieve it. — 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
