“In the future, as in the present, as in the past, black people will build many new worlds. This is true. I will make it so. And you will help me.”

“There's a tendency in American thought - maybe elsewhere, but that's the culture I know best - to default to social Darwinism, even though even Darwin noted that's a misapplication of his id...”

“When I start a new novel, I often write 'test chapters' in different tenses and from different points of view in order to figure out which is best to tell the tale.”

“The shake that passes will echo. The wave that recedes will come back. The mountain that rumbles will roar.”