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Vote:   | A lot of the writers coming out don't care about these values. They're like the equivalent of Lil' Kim. They'll go as far as they have to go just for shock value and to make money. |
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Vote: | A lot of things aren't as terrifying as we think they are. |
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Vote: | And I don't consider my work to be formulaic at all. |
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Vote: | And there are a lot of books I read out here where I could care less what happens to the characters. |
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Vote: | Basically what motivates me is ill will. |
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Vote: | Basically, my stories are a journey. |
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Vote: | But fiction can take you a lot of different places that you may not go, or may not have an opportunity to go in your own life. |
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Vote: | But in libraries, my books are defined as literature and on college campuses my books are read as literature. |
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Vote: | But my fans are my biggest critics, my best critics. |
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Vote: | Considering the fact that I'm not dead yet and the only real tokens I have to define or reflect it are my books, I hope they get stronger. |
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Vote: | Everybody's not going to like my books. I can live with that. |
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Vote: | Few writers are willing to admit writing is autobiographical. |
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Vote: | For each book I have asked to write my own disclaimer and they never would allow it. |
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Vote: | Hopefully your life can represent things that you really care about. |
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Vote: | However, in some cases, I think it makes it easier for some people to express themselves more openly because they feel more comfortable knowing that if the doctor is of the same race, there are certain things they don't have to explain. |
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Vote: | I don't expect everybody to love my books. |
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Vote: | I don't feel any more confident as a writer except I've read enough really good novels to know what it takes to tell a compelling story. |
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Vote: | I don't really think of evolution as an artist as much as I would like to think of myself as just an adult. |
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Vote: | I don't think that a black person couldn't talk to a white psychologist or psychiatrist. |
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Vote: | I experienced quite a bit of frustration in the writing and completion of A Day Late, unlike my other novels, partly, I'm sure, because of the time issue. |
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Vote: | I only have typical writing days when I'm really working on a novel and even that has changed over the years because I have a school-age son. |
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Vote: | I thought of it because we, as people, always seem to believe that we'll always have another chance, and sometimes we don't get that chance. |
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Vote: | I try to tell an honest story, a plausible one, but each book does not get easier than the last. |
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Vote: | I write about people and situations that are causing us harm. Somebody needs to say it or show it - and if it's embarrassing then it should be. |
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Vote: | I'd really like a write a young adult novel and write a young adult movie - something for the teenage set. |
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Vote: | I'm a fast writer. |
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Vote: | I'm doing this because I want to make an emotional investment, and the story, what I experience along with each character, is what makes it worthwhile. |
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Vote: | I'm interested in the daily dynamics of a family. Those dynamics change based on whether you are a teen-ager, or in your 20's, 30's or 40's. |
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Vote: | I'm more interested in interpersonal relationships - between lovers families, siblings. That's why I write about how we treat each other. |
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Vote: | I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal but I don't write for shock value. |
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Vote: | I've come to realize that people don't tell everything. As much as you love your siblings, there are things you just don't share. |
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Vote: | I've known so many late-aged women whose husbands wound up running off with the secretary or some hoochie. |
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Vote: | If I already know how it is going to end, or what they are going to experience why bother? |
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Vote: | If I feel the same when I finish a novel as I did when I started, it means I didn't learn anything; that I've wasted my time, and probably the readers time, too. |
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Vote: | It was devastating to discover that a relationship I had publicized to the world as life-affirming and built on mutual love was actually based on deceit. |
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Vote: | It's always exciting when you have something propelling you. |
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Vote: | My characters are being put in a situation where they are being tested. Each book is a test. |
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Vote: | My drafts usually come quickly, in a rush. |
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Vote: | My novels are usually plotless so if you're trying to come up with a plot, you're going to be challenged. |
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Vote: | My stories are character driven. |
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Vote: | My work is a small representation of the things that I happen to care about right now - at least the things that loomed large enough for me to find their way into book form. |
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Vote: | No, because when I'm writing, I'm not thinking about my audience. |
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Vote: | One of the reasons novelists, in particular African-American women writers, have gotten a big gigantic wrist slap is for airing dirty laundry. |
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Vote: | People like to misconstrue things. Folks like to think this is them in the book, Folks just do. |
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Vote: | That's the great thing about fiction, you can step ouside youself and look in and see more about why we met and fell in love. |
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Vote: | The best part of this whole process is writing. |
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Vote: | The other thing that is annoying to me is that I think the publishing industry gives me too much credit. |
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Vote: | There are lot of writers out here writing what I think are solid, strong stories that make you feel better when you finish them. |
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Vote: | There is a price for popularity. Critics look for your weaknesses, your flaws, anything that makes the work seem like a fluke and not seem worthy of all the attention it's getting. |
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Vote: | What is sad and annoying is that the publishing industry hasn't known how to characterize my work. |
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Vote: | You never know where it's going to go or how it's going to end up, which is why it's impossible for me to even consider the idea that it could ever get easier. |