I'm just not into trying to convince people like me. I always say to myself, 'It is what it is.' I walk into a situation knowing that people are either going to love me or they're not, and that's OK. I'm just going to be me. You can't be everything to everyone.
“My first novel, 'Leaving Atlanta,' took at look at my hometown in the late 1970s, when the city was terrorized by a serial murderer that left at least 29 African-American children dead.”
“Listen to advice. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least half the audience fights all the conventions of the field.”