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" Schools don't teach American history that well, especially a lot of black American history. "
Colson Whitehead
American
Well
Teach
Related Quotes:
" 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
" You can't rush inspiration. "
Colson Whitehead
You
Rush
Inspiration
" I like questions that tee me up to make weird jokes, frankly. "
Colson Whitehead
Like
Questions
Up
" The contemporary casino is more than a gambling destination: it is a multifarious pleasure enclosure intended to satisfy every member of the family unit. "
Colson Whitehead
Gambling
Family
Destination
" I was 7 years old when 'Roots' was first broadcast, and my parents gathered all us kids around the TV to learn about how we got here. But it wasn't until I sat down and immersed myself in the research that I got the barest inkling of what it meant to be a slave. "
Colson Whitehead
Research
Myself
Parents
" I always try to mix it up with each book - changing tone, changing style keeps the work very vital for me. "
Colson Whitehead
Work
Try
Me
" 'John Henry Days' was already half in the can before my first book came out, so I'd already started something that was big and sprawling - I just had to finish it. "
Colson Whitehead
Started
First
Finish
" The terror of figuring out a new genre, of telling a new story, is what makes the job exciting, keeps me from getting bored, and I assume it keeps whoever follows my work from getting bored as well. "
Colson Whitehead
Job
Work
Bored
" 'Zone One' has one kind of an apocalypse, and 'The Underground Railroad' another. In both cases, the narrators are animated by a hope in a better place of refuge - in the last surviving human outpost, Up North. Does it exist? They can only believe. "
Colson Whitehead
Railroad
Believe
Place
" 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
" A lot of early Misfits song titles are inspired by old B-movies, which were my Popeye's spinach when I was a kid. "
Colson Whitehead
Inspired
Kid
Old
" 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
" As always, a lot of bad books will be published. Some good books will be published, and you have to seek them out. "
Colson Whitehead
Good
Always
Bad
" I grew up reading the 'Village Voice' and wanting to be one of these multidisciplinary music writers, film writers, book writers. And I lucked out getting a job at the 'Voice' right after college. "
Colson Whitehead
Job
College
Book
" Write what you know. "
Colson Whitehead
Write
You
Know
" There's not a lot of good TV. "
Colson Whitehead
TV
Good
Lot
" In fifth grade, we did 10 minutes on slavery and 40 minutes on Abraham Lincoln, and in 10th grade you might do 10 minutes on the civil rights era and 40 minutes on Martin Luther King, and that's it. "
Colson Whitehead
King
You
Civil Rights
" Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in an alternative world where elevator inspectors are important, so you have to establish rules, and part of that is, How do people talk? How do they behave? "
Colson Whitehead
Book
Rules
Place
" Generally, I walk around in a glum mood. "
Colson Whitehead
Generally
Walk
Around
" Part of being in New York is being able to brag about what used to be there. "
Colson Whitehead
About
Being
Used
" If you write about race in 1850, you end up talking about race today because in many ways, so little has changed. "
Colson Whitehead
Write
Talking
Race
" I never actually went anywhere when I was a journalist. I was a critic, and I just sort of got stuff in the mail and chatted about it. "
Colson Whitehead
Just
Never
Mail
" The movie 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' was a sacred text in my household. "
Colson Whitehead
High School
Rock
School
" Stephen King in general, as well as films of the apocalypse from the '70s, had a big influence on 'Zone One.' "
Colson Whitehead
Big
King
General
" I'm always trying to switch voices and genres. "
Colson Whitehead
Trying
Voices
Genres
" I wrote a book of essays about New York called 'The Colossus of New York,' but it's not about - you know, when I'm writing about rush hour or Central Park, it's not a black Central Park, it's just Central Park, and it's not a black rush hour, it's just rush hour. "
Colson Whitehead
Writing
Black
Book
" What isn't said is as important as what is said. "
Colson Whitehead
Important
Said
" 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
" The Declaration of Independence is that sacred American text so full of meaning and purpose and yet quite empty if you examine it and pull it apart because the words 'All Men' exclude a vast number of citizens. "
Colson Whitehead
Men
Meaning
American
" I have a good poker face because I am half-dead inside. "
Colson Whitehead
Inside
Poker
I Am