But if these years have taught me anything it is this: you can never run away. Not ever. The only way out is in.
Being an author is always like being a well-run dictatorship - it's all one person speaking.
I came up under [Ronald] Reagan and under [George] Bush, and what are we to do now? We are here to fight. People can run off all they want. But for me, [Donald] Trump is already in the Dominican Republic.
Stories are hard. I have friends who knock out stories on a weekly or monthly basis, like they're running on medicinal-strength Updike. But for me a story is as daunting a prospect as a novel.
You can't find intimacy - you can't find home - when you're always hiding behind masks. Intimacy requires a certain level of vulnerability. It requires a certain level of you exposing your fragmented, contradictory self to someone else. You running the risk of having your core self rejected and hurt and misunderstood.
I feel most like myself... after I run - I go out for five miles every morning.
Run a hand through your hair, like the white boys do, even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa.
