American Quote by Jenny Zhang

It infuriates me that the work of white American writers can be universal and lay claim to classic texts, while black and female authors…

— Jesmyn Ward

I'm not against White writers writing about Blacks as long as they are as objective as say James McPherson writing about an Irish American…

— Ishmael Reed

I didn't have the great American novel burning inside me, but I felt I could try my hand at popular fiction.

— Clive Cussler

I've had a somewhat typical experience in that many of the contemporary writers I was exposed to early on were white and often male.

— Laura van den Berg

“African-American writers with an independent vision are often consigned to obscurity. The white critics can only tolerate one black writer at a time, usually…

— Ishmael Reed

Despite the obstacles of race and class, I was always taught that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. African-American writers, for…

— Clarence Major

I felt like I could never write nonfiction, because I would have to spend so many pages explaining my ethnic background, and that wasn't…

— Michelle Zauner

Naturally, you don't sit down in "white hot inspiration" and write with a burning flame in front of you. But since I knew I…

— Harper Lee

I always crave to see more stories about and by people of color, particularly new work by young black writers.

— Katori Hall

I use non-fiction work written by Whites in my research. It's indispensable. That wasn't the problem. I said that "The Wire" was a cliché!…

— Ishmael Reed

As a writer, I was shaped by a desire to write for black people. That things were not being represented. That was my motivating…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“I write to breath life back into memory to remind African-Americans of our rich and textured history. I also see myself as a "root,"…

— Bernice L. McFadden