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" I'm someone who just likes being in my cave and thinking up weird stuff. "
Colson Whitehead
Cave
Someone
Up
Related Quotes:
" I usually have two or three ideas floating around. When I have free time, the one I end up thinking most about is the one I end up pursuing. "
Colson Whitehead
Free
Three
Thinking
" When I'm working on a book, I try to do eight pages a week. That seems like a good amount. Less than that, I'm not getting a nice momentum, and more than that, I'm probably putting out too much crap. "
Colson Whitehead
Book
Good
Momentum
" The idea of sacrifice is integral to the John Henry myth. Heroic figures have to die in order for us to have our stories; we live and stand on their bones. "
Colson Whitehead
Die
Us
Stand
" In the apocalypse, I think those average, mediocre folks are the ones who are going to live. "
Colson Whitehead
Average
Those
Who
" Once I got to college, it seemed that the Hamptons were a little bit too posh for me and didn't represent the kind of values I was embracing in my late teens. So, I didn't go out there, except to visit my parents, for a long time. And then, after 9/11, I discovered it was a nice, mellow place to hang out. "
Colson Whitehead
Time
Me
College
" I try to keep each different book different from the last. So 'Sag Harbor' is very different from 'Apex Hides the Hurt;' 'The Intuitionist,' which is kind of a detective novel, is very different from 'John Henry Days.' I'm just trying to keep things rich for me creatively and for the readers who follow me. "
Colson Whitehead
Trying
Kind
Me
" I like questions that tee me up to make weird jokes, frankly. "
Colson Whitehead
Like
Questions
Up
" Monsters are a storytelling tool, like domestic realism and close third. "
Colson Whitehead
Monsters
Realism
Storytelling
" I am not sure the issue of race in America will ever be completely solved. "
Colson Whitehead
I Am
Race
Sure
" I was allowed to write about race using an elevator metaphor because of Toni Morrison and David Bradley and Ralph Ellison. Hopefully, me being weird allows someone who's 16 and wanting to write inspires them to have their own weird take on the world, and they can see the different kinds of African American voices being published. "
Colson Whitehead
Me
Weird
American
" I've always thought the Nat Turner story to be very interesting. "
Colson Whitehead
Interesting
Always
Thought
" Some books are well-received with critics; other books sell. "
Colson Whitehead
Sell
Books
Critics
" I take inspiration from books, movies, television, music - it all goes in the hopper. Depending on the project, I'm drawing from this or that piece of art that has stayed with me. Toni Morrison, George Romero, Sonic Youth - they are all in there. "
Colson Whitehead
Me
Art
Drawing
" Access to information, to music or any kind of culture, is getting faster and faster and more streamlined. At each juncture, people are thrown into tumult and have to adapt or die. "
Colson Whitehead
Information
Culture
People
" I write at home. I like to be able to take a nap, watch TV, make a sandwich, and if I wake up and don't feel like working, I'm not going to bang my head on my desk all day: I'll go out and do something else. "
Colson Whitehead
Watch
Home
Nap
" I was sort of a miserable teenager. "
Colson Whitehead
Miserable
Sort
Teenager
" It's always hard to write and get your words out there, to find an editor, a publisher - readers! - who are going to appreciate them. "
Colson Whitehead
Words
Find
Always
" The readership for 'Sag Harbor' was different from people who'd read me before - it was linear and realistic, not as strange as 'The Intuitionist.' Did they carry over to 'Zone One,' a story about zombies in New York? Some, some not. I'm used to people not caring about my other books. "
Colson Whitehead
New
People
Caring
" Schools don't teach American history that well, especially a lot of black American history. "
Colson Whitehead
American
Well
Teach
" Other people have hang-ups about what's literary or genre or whatever, and that's sort of not my problem. You're supposed to write what you have to write, and you're supposed to keep moving. "
Colson Whitehead
You
Moving
Write
" You can't rush inspiration. "
Colson Whitehead
You
Rush
Inspiration
" Slavery was a violent, brutal, immoral system, and in accurately depicting how it worked, you have to include that, obviously. Or else you are lying. "
Colson Whitehead
System
Brutal
How
" I love getting out of the Q train at Union Square. It's such a mix of people, like a party. There's always an errand you can do along there, whether it's picking up contacts or buying poker chips. "
Colson Whitehead
Train
Party
Love
" I was inspired to become a writer by horror movies and science fiction. "
Colson Whitehead
Horror
Movies
Science
" In college, I wrote maybe three short stories. "
Colson Whitehead
Short
Maybe
College
" Early on my career, I figured out that I just have to write the book I have to write at that moment. Whatever else is going on in the culture is just not that important. If you could get the culture to write your book, that would be great. But the culture can't write your book. "
Colson Whitehead
Moment
You
Culture
" Zombies are a great rhetorical prop to talk about people and paranoia, and they are a good vehicle for my misanthropy. "
Colson Whitehead
Good
Paranoia
People
" I live in Brooklyn. I moved here 14 years ago for the cheap rent. It was a little embarrassing because I was raised in Manhattan, and so I was a bit of a snob about the other boroughs. "
Colson Whitehead
Rent
Years
Live
" I'm of that subset of native New Yorkers who can't drive. "
Colson Whitehead
New
Native
New Yorkers
" I think a joke is a form of truth-telling. A good joke that's absurd contains elements of our daily darkness and also a possibility to escape that darkness. So, for me, humor is an attempt to capture everyday tragedy and everyday hopeful moments that we experience all of the time. "
Colson Whitehead
Time
Humor
Good