"You can't have a good story without a bad guy."

"Navigating without a compass, which is to say, without a clear idea of what is right and what is wrong, is a dangerous business."

"There is no place you can go and be safe, because there is no place that you can go and be free."

"You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down."

"I think of myself as an American writer. I don't think of myself as a Black writer."