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" I think that writers are best served by sticking to their writing. Not having loads of theories about the best way to position the writing. I think that if the writing is good and the point of view is strong, the writing is going to take care of itself. "

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" 'Moonlight' undoes our expectations as viewers, and as human beings, too. As we watch, another movie plays in our minds: real-life footage of the many forms of damage done to black men, which can sometimes lead them to turn that hateful madness on their own kind, passing on the poison that was their inheritance. "

Hilton Als

Madness

Men

Black

" I didn't like '12 Years a Slave' because it was playing to the Spielbergian model of redemption. "

" It's very hard to find artists in the history of western art who don't make portraiture ideological in some way. "

" I love writing. Writing has been very good to me. "

Hilton Als

Writing

Very

" I'm not one of those people who's against all-black productions of Tennessee Williams plays, but there are lot more complex and natural ways to bring people of color into the theater. "

Hilton Als

People

Natural

" I never feel like I've done anything. Swear to God. I'm not kidding. So it's always a surprise when somebody asks me to do anything. "

" If you have a word of encouragement, you can do anything. "

" I am always attracted to people who are not myself but are. "

Hilton Als

Always

I Am

" For black people, being around white people is sometimes like taking care of babies you don't like. "

" Inspiration takes many forms, but it's rarely pure. "

" I was an actor for a little bit. That's when I started to understand fiction - and that one of the great things about fiction is that you're dependent on the characters as much as they're dependent on you. "

" My self encompasses a lot of different things. "

" I suppose that there are many novels that are set during the summer because it's a lonely time of year. Friends come and go, comfort comes and goes, which makes it a perfect time of year to indulge in melancholia. "

" I have not seen 'The Lion King.' I don't do black folklore. And I'm black. "

" There is not enough time for anything, ever. "

" What I feel is there are certain demands that you have to satisfy in any piece of writing. When it's just for me, it's just for me, but if it's a piece for a particular publication, I know what they're going to ask for. "

Hilton Als

Going

Feel

" I used to think that the feeling of alienation that I would have was just me, but I realise that it's also a symptom of the modern world. "

" I think, what's the point of writing a book that you would get in one sitting? "

" Nothing is more flattering for a writer than when someone knows your work. "

Hilton Als

Work

Nothing

" If you want to take writing on, you should pay writing the respect it deserves, which is to say, reading it. "

" I think I'm just generally more interested in figuration than abstraction. I think that painting abstraction often feels like painting colors to me, whereas portraits always feel like something connected. I like the exchange, the collaborative aspect of sitter and subject for sure. "

" Black excellence is a thing. People - from Beyonce Knowles to Venus and Serena Williams to folks you haven't heard of - are into it. It's less a movement than a standard: believers set the bar high not only for themselves but also for others who share their vision, especially when it pertains to black history, stories, and style. "

" I think that when I'm telling a story, I'm doing the best I can to tell the story as fully as I can, and if there are various fractures that happen in the story, then that's just the very thing that the story is as opposed to my looking for avenues of difference in one story. They just really do exist. For me, anyway. "

Hilton Als

Think

Story

" I think someone like Khandi Alexander, who's now on 'Treme,' is one of the most extraordinary actresses I've seen in years. But she's dependent on someone brilliant like David Simon to realize that and to give her a forum. Tyler Perry's not interested in that kind of nuance because it doesn't sell. "

" My love of performers is not really different than my love for painters. Everyone's really high-strung and trying to do the best they can. "

" People have a copyright on their own life. "

Hilton Als

People

Own

" I don't think that there are many, many strong, black male role models who provide a certain kind of really American, Southern-based comfort that Madea grows out of. She's a signpost in our Obama world of traditional Christian values. "

" Of course a magazine is shaped by its editor, and each editor is different. "

" I envy poets because nobody ever asks them if it's true or false. "

" My mother reveres artists, and my sister and I have inherited her love of art and the stories about its creation. "