“Dave, the first person I met in Poughkeepsie, was a felon because he was black, scared, desperate, and guilty. My student Cole, a heroin user and dealer of everything from weed to cocaine, is a college student because he's white,… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share Image
I allude to Back to the Future in the 1985 story to let folks know it was an inspiration and because it literally was… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
“I lie in a bathtub of cold water, still sweating and singing love songs to myself. I put the gun to my head and… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
In essay writing, I'm trying to push the form of expository writing. I'm trying to remember, trying to reckon, trying to find connections with… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
I wish every American explored the importance of novel writing, identity, honesty, character and place in fresh-ass ways. — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
“I swear that white folks need to just shut the hell up sometimes. Y'all make it hard for everybody.” — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
Long Division has a lot of Afrosurrealist impulses. I think the book was more Afrofuturist when it was like 700 pages. — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
“Y'all taught me that unacknowledged scars accumulated in battles won often hurt more than battles lost.” — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
First of all, the novel should be a critique of the novels that have come before it in a language that broadens the audience… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
I'm also, than anything else, a teacher and a student. And without the four hours, I'm pretty monsterish. For real. — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
I'm an obsessive writer who needs and loves revision. Writing helps me learn and helps me teach. — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
I'm accountable - this sounds emo - to black American writing, Southern writing, Southern black American writing, American writing and my people. That's kind… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
I'm not good enough as a person and definitely not good enough as a writer. — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
“I think of my grandma and remember that old feeling of being so in love that nothing matters except seeing and being seen by… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
I'm interested in how the confessional is so abrasively critiqued today. I'm not really comfortable with simply confessing but I do think "confessing" is… — Kiese Laymon Copy Share
