I feel privileged that I've been able to get anywhere, with my quote-unquote limited mainstream appeal, given my race and subject matter. Of course, I always have my masters to fall back on.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't want the whole of my writing or my intellectual energy given over to race because I have diverse interests.
My potential is more than can be expressed within the bounds of my race or ethnic identity.
For a writer, you definitely do not want to be in the mainstream. You want to be on the edge because that's where the vantage point is. That's where you can see.
When I think of the trials and tribulations that black men go through in America and that black artists went through, I feel very privileged.
Redeeming subjects from cliche is its own pleasure and privilege.
My greatest platform is not with all my degrees, everything else, it's not all my books, everything. It's that I'm known as a man who loves his wife and spends time with his children. That opens more; I speak as a daddy.
If you have a level of expectation in your life that you have to be a quote-unquote star, whatever that means, you might be setting yourself up for failure.
Traditionally, I have no right to talk about race. I'm white; I didn't grow up in an all-black neighborhood. But the license I see for myself is I'm a member of the world.
I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences, but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate.
I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours.