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" Write what you know. "
Colson Whitehead
Write
You
Know
Related Quotes:
" You can't rush inspiration. "
Colson Whitehead
You
Rush
Inspiration
" 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 use New York to talk about home, but the ideas in 'Colossus' could be transferred to other cities. The story about Central Park is really about the first day of spring in any park. The Coney Island chapter is really about beaches and summer and heat waves. "
Colson Whitehead
Story
New York
Ideas
" Each book requires a different kind of treatment and structural gambit. "
Colson Whitehead
Different
Treatment
Each
" 'Zone One' comes out of me trying to work through some of my ideas about why, for me personally, zombies are scary. "
Colson Whitehead
Me
Trying
Why
" In America, when you hear about the Underground Railroad, it's so evocative. You think it's a literal subway for a few minutes before your teacher goes on and describes where it actually was. "
Colson Whitehead
Railroad
You
America
" A lot of my books have started with an abstract premise. "
Colson Whitehead
Premise
Books
Abstract
" 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
" '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
" If you want to understand America, it's slavery. "
Colson Whitehead
America
Understand
Want
" Growing up devouring horror comics and novels, and being inspired to become a writer because of horror novels, movies, and comic books, I always knew I was going to write a horror novel. "
Colson Whitehead
Horror
Growing
Growing Up
" I didn't know I was a zombie pedant until I started considering what from the zombie canon to keep in 'Zone One' and what to ignore. "
Colson Whitehead
Know
Started
Zombie
" If you're writing a detective novel or horror or sci-fi, you want to expand or reinvigorate the genre in your own little way. "
Colson Whitehead
Way
Horror
Own
" For me, choosing between fiction and nonfiction is really only about picking the right tool for the job. "
Colson Whitehead
Only
Tool
Right
" 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
" 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
" I do write about race a lot, but I don't think writers - of any shade or background or whatever - have to write about certain subjects. "
Colson Whitehead
Whatever
Write
Lot
" In 'John Henry Days,' I was taking my idea of junketeering and sort of blowing it up to absurd extremes. "
Colson Whitehead
Absurd
Days
Idea
" I'm raising kids, and so much of American culture sustains me and gives me things to think about and work on. "
Colson Whitehead
Me
American
Culture
" I was always into comic books and horror stories and a huge consumer of pop culture. And then I worked for awhile for 'The Village Voice'. "
Colson Whitehead
Horror
Village
Voice
" If self-absorption, vague yearnings, and a nagging sense of incompleteness are sins, then surely I will burn for all eternity, and I will save you a seat. "
Colson Whitehead
Vague
Sense
Eternity
" 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
" 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
" There's not a lot of good TV. "
Colson Whitehead
TV
Good
Lot
" 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
" Usually, when I write a novel, it takes me about 100 pages to figure out the voice of the narrator. "
Colson Whitehead
Me
Write
Voice
" There's always an attack on the sophomore novel from some quarters. "
Colson Whitehead
Always
Some
Sophomore
" Generally, I walk around in a glum mood. "
Colson Whitehead
Generally
Walk
Around
" 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 have a good poker face because I am half-dead inside. "
Colson Whitehead
Inside
Poker
I Am