Our thoughts, our language, are always at a distance from whatever they're trying to describe. We have other kinds of languages, like… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
When you're at the basketball court watching a game, one person may be talking about a fight he had with his wife,… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
That's the beauty and the terror of being human beings: We just have these symbolic languages, these dreams, and that's all it… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I really love James Joyce, Dubliners and other work. And I was interested in the way the dash was used in English… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
The whole idea of spellbinding, of being an entertainer, being the center of the stage, making up words - that let me… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Our thoughts, our language, are always at a distance from whatever they're trying to describe. We're dreamers and - since we only… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Kids use words in ways that release hidden meanings, revel the history buried in sounds. They haven't forgotten that words can 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
