Colson Whitehead

I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a…

— Colson Whitehead

I want to keep growing as a writer. I find myself doing unexpected projects and sort of challenging my idea of where…

— Colson Whitehead

“Every Tuesday, James Fulton (and later, Orville Lever) stood in the downstairs drawing room and lectured on the intricacies of his science.…

— Colson Whitehead

I started writing in the '90s, so I was free to just have an eccentric career and not conform to some idea…

— Colson Whitehead

“Is this the truth of our historic encounter?”

— Colson Whitehead

“The Great War had always been between the white and the black. It always would be. Cora”

— Colson Whitehead

“The worst sort of scoundrels took up the chase. Drunkards, incorrigibles, poor whites who didn’t even own shoes delighted in this opportunity…

— Colson Whitehead

Don’t go searching for a subject, let your subject find you. You can’t rush inspiration. … Once your subject finds you, it’s…

— Colson Whitehead

“its terms? Homer watched her as she dressed, like a valet who had waited on her since the cradle. “I’m caught,” Cora…

— Colson Whitehead

These days I find myself wanting to avoid being pigeon-holed, ghettoized, held in a different category than other authors. And when people…

— Colson Whitehead

Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in…

— Colson Whitehead

There's always an attack on the sophomore novel from some quarters.

— Colson Whitehead

“All he felt now was envy. These people had expectations. Of the world, of the future, it didn't matter--expectation was such an…

— Colson Whitehead

Growing up as a product of the black civil-rights movement, I had a lot of different models for black weirdness, whether it's…

— Colson Whitehead

Schools don't teach American history that well, especially a lot of black American history.

— Colson Whitehead

“Life! What Inscrutable Card Shall Ye Throw Next Upon the Soft Felt of Our Days?”

— Colson Whitehead

Zombies are a great rhetorical prop to talk about people and paranoia, and they are a good vehicle for my misanthropy.

— Colson Whitehead

“You say you know these streets pretty well? The city knows you better than any living person because it has seen you…

— Colson Whitehead

I'm always trying to switch voices and genres.

— Colson Whitehead

“The Great War had always been between the white and the black. It always would be.”

— Colson Whitehead

The idea of sacrifice is integral to the John Henry myth. Heroic figures have to die in order for us to have…

— Colson Whitehead

In America, when you hear about the Underground Railroad, it's so evocative. You think it's a literal subway for a few minutes…

— Colson Whitehead

“The previous night in Tennessee, Ridgeway had called Cora and her mother a flaw in the American scheme. If two women were…

— Colson Whitehead

People don't like it when you compare the miracle of childbirth to writing a book, but I think there is some overlap…

— Colson Whitehead

“The ruthless engine of cotton required its fuel of African bodies. Crisscrossing the ocean, ships brought bodies to work the land and…

— Colson Whitehead