One of the things that writers worry about is finding a voice. I don't think it's a thing that you find so… — Ayana Mathis Findings Copy Share Image
“All of them...were little lights; sparks flying upward in dark places, trying to stay alight though they were compelled toward ash. They… — Ayana Mathis Dark place Copy Share Image
The correlations between real life experience and the storylines in novels are never as direct or simple as they might seem. — Ayana Mathis Books Copy Share Image
I've been writing all my life. Even though I didn't have sort of careerist aspirations as a writer, it was very much… — Ayana Mathis Aspiration Copy Share Image
There's a stereotype that to be a strong black woman is to be strong about being black. — Ayana Mathis Black Copy Share Image
By sixteen I thought, "Ah, this is all crap, you're all sheep, I'm not going to church, leave me alone." And then… — Ayana Mathis Candle Copy Share Image
I couldn't imagine a book with many characters in it and one of them not being gay. It would have felt like… — Ayana Mathis Being gay Copy Share Image
I think that if you just write your characters you end up with something that people can access. — Ayana Mathis Access Copy Share Image
“Maybe we have only a finite amount of love to give. We're born with our portion, and if we love and are… — Ayana Mathis Love Copy Share Image
“She didn’t know what to make of this sporadic urgency with him. It had confounded and humiliated her for the thirty years… — Ayana Mathis Marriage Copy Share Image
“One of these days you gon’ have to turn around and look at whatever it is you running from.” — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
I started writing the book without realizing I was writing a book. That sounds stupid, but it's true. I'd been trying and… — Ayana Mathis Book Copy Share Image
“Some things you can’t apologize for, you just have to try to get around them,” Hattie replied. “For your own sake too,… — Ayana Mathis Peace Copy Share Image
I think that the project of being alive is to be alive. So there will always be twists and turns and steps… — Ayana Mathis Alive Copy Share Image
There were class differences among black people then and there are class differences among black people now. There is still an assumption… — Ayana Mathis American society Copy Share Image
“In Georgia, there was a eucalyptus tree in the wood across from Hattie's house, but the plant had been hard to come… — Ayana Mathis Trees Copy Share Image
“...Hattie wanted to give her babies names that weren't already chiseled on a headstone in the family plots in Georgia, so she… — Ayana Mathis Family Copy Share Image
Fiction writing is an act of imagination, lived experience is secondary in many ways, writing a novel really is all about inventing… — Ayana Mathis Books Copy Share Image
“She wished the man outside really were Thomas, so she and Billups could again have the same enemy and the same fear.O” — Ayana Mathis Copy Share Image
A belief in God may not be fully within me anymore, but there's still a belief in belief. The high drama and… — Ayana Mathis Belief Copy Share Image
There is still an assumption among many people that to be black is to be lower class. In the last fifteen to… — Ayana Mathis Assumption Copy Share Image
“You act like your whole life was one long January afternoon." Lawrence said. "It wouldn't do any good to go around with… — Ayana Mathis Head in the clouds Copy Share Image
“All of them -- Hattie and Willie and Evelyn and even ruined, crazy Walter -- were little lights; sparks flying upward in… — Ayana Mathis Dark place Copy Share Image
“It seemed to him that he could never get a proper grip on any of the beauty in this world.” — Ayana Mathis Beauty Copy Share Image
“Six wasn't sure religion was any more than a lot of people caught up in a collective delirium that disappeared the minute… — Ayana Mathis Religion Copy Share Image
