Because I'm an art historian, I have some experience of writing that comes out of close attention. That's what really art history… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
You don't bring in a gay character as a way of commenting on gay issues. You have one there because he's real,… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
The creative part of oneself finds its way out. In this case, I got interested particularly in the medium of Twitter and… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
There are many people who know nothing of a world in which we take the reality of the 'other' seriously. I'm running… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
The shape the words end up taking are themselves the meaning of the words, they are retrospectively what we meant to say.… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
Not all coincidence has to be loaded with meaning. Sometimes, things simply recur because that's how it is in life, that's how… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
I just realized that we're facing here is an empathy gap. And this was just another way to generate conversation about something… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
The novelist can't successfully depict such horrifying reality. But she can, and must, try, to bear witness. There are many ways of… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
I deeply respect American sentimentality, the way one respects a wounded hippo. You must keep an eye on it, for you know… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
Lyrical poetry is not a big part of most people's lives. Twitter now becomes an interesting way of getting cared for language… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
One of the difficulties of photography is that it is much better at being explicit than at being reticent. — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
Note-taking is important to me: a week's worth of reading notes (or "thoughts I had in the shower" notes) is cumulatively more interesting than… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
It's an Obama book, certainly. I was delighted, and astonished, to hear recently that he was reading it. It's a book about a new… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
Because I'm an art historian, I have some experience of writing that comes out of close attention. That's what really art history is. You're… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
For purposes of marketing, writers are designated as poets, novelists, or something else. But writing is about matchmaking, an attempt to marry sensations with… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
“Most of the people around me yesterday were middle-aged or old. I am used to it, but it never ceases to surprise me how… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
“The mind roams more widely in the dark than it does in light. It is no surprise, then, stepping out of the unlit house… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
“Each person must, on some level, take himself as the calibration point for normalcy, must assume that the room of his own mind is… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
Writing as writing. Writing as rioting. Writing as righting. On the best days, all three. — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
“The site was a palimpsest, as was all the city, written, erased, rewritten...Generations rushed through the eye of the needle, and I, one of… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
“As I contemplated the silent world before me, I thought of the many romantic ideas attached to blindness. Ideas of unusual sensitivity and genius… — Teju Cole Copy Share Image
