“the full moon, the white beacon that so often agitated the slave with a mind to run.” — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
In the 1930s, the government paid writers to interview 80- and 90-year-old former slaves, and I read those accounts. I came away… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“No slave had ever keeled over dead at a spinning wheel or been butchered for a tangle. But nobody wanted to speak… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Being a slave meant never having the stability of knowing your family would be together as many years as God designed it… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I was 7 years old when 'Roots' was first broadcast, and my parents gathered all us kids around the TV to learn… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“THE music stopped. The circle broke. Sometimes a slave will be lost in a brief eddy of liberation. In the sway of… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Being a slave meant never having the stability of knowing your family would be together as many years as God designed it… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
When it comes to how the slaves treat each other: If you've been brutalized all your life - if you have seen… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“And that great mixture was brought to America in the holds of slave ships. To the north, the south. Their sons and… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a sport centered… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I want to keep growing as a writer. I find myself doing unexpected projects and sort of challenging my idea of where I am… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“Every Tuesday, James Fulton (and later, Orville Lever) stood in the downstairs drawing room and lectured on the intricacies of his science. Lectured on… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
I started writing in the '90s, so I was free to just have an eccentric career and not conform to some idea of what… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“The Great War had always been between the white and the black. It always would be. Cora” — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“The worst sort of scoundrels took up the chase. Drunkards, incorrigibles, poor whites who didn’t even own shoes delighted in this opportunity to scourge… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you. You can’t rush inspiration. … Once your subject finds you, it’s like falling… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
“its terms? Homer watched her as she dressed, like a valet who had waited on her since the cradle. “I’m caught,” Cora said. “You… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
These days I find myself wanting to avoid being pigeon-holed, ghettoized, held in a different category than other authors. And when people ask me… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in an alternative… — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
There's always an attack on the sophomore novel from some quarters. — Colson Whitehead Copy Share Image
