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… — 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… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
My aunt Geraldine was the unofficial historian and storyteller. She had all the information about family members and the gossip that came… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Hell, I'm going to play pro basketball. I'm going to maybe be famous. I'm going to write books. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I have written about the women around me. My ancestors, my relatives, lovers. It was a way of trying to make it… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Writers transform: they throw a hand grenade into the notion of reality that people carry around in their heads. That's very dangerous,… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I really dislike it when people talk about "experimental," because any good writer is experimental. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
A lot of people think the best work I've done was nonfiction - the 'Brothers and Keepers' book. But I think of… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Remember that a book is many drafts - mine certainly are. It's improvisation. It's as much jazz and the way we talk… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I don't make that hard and fast distinction between political and nonpolitical writing. I write about what bothers me. — 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
I really dislike when people talk about "experimental," because any good writer is experimental. As a writer, you don't know what the… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I don't write books because I have answers. I write books because I have questions. What we are is the questions that… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
When I wake up in the morning, I need the writing to go to. I begin there. And that's not an accident,… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I'm still divided in my principles and what I think is right and what I'm actually able to do, whether talking about… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
As a writer, you don't know what the hell you're doing. You're just doing it. You hope it works out well. — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
I always liked to write and had fun writing, but I didn't have any pretensions about being a writer. I liked to… — John Edgar Wideman Copy Share Image
When I'm writing, I'm thinking, "Well, this might be a book that I'll always be happy with, and certainly readers will 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
