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I'm not hiding who I am anymore - not pretending I'm something I'm not.

Who are we? Whom do we want to become? How do we perceive ourselves? How do we want to be perceived? These questions of identity are often at the core of our own internal struggles. Resolve them, and you are closer to being free.

I understand people have preconceived notions of who I am or what I do.

Over time, it's occurred to me that my protagonists all originate in some aspect of myself that I find myself questioning or feeling uncomfortable about.

I think most people are interested in our origins; once we understand, it might be easier to become the people we'd like to be. Or, better, become the people we think we already are.

My own being can be judged by the depths I reach in making these historical origins my own.

Disguising your own origins is a deeply American impulse, but that doesn't make it any less compromising. The way I live my life is to try to foreground the tensions and paradoxes of being a white person who's interested in racial justice and reconciliation, rather than disguise or obliterate them.

I don't know if I'll ever get used to the idea that strangers know who I am. I don't know if I want to.

I've gradually grown more comfortable with who I am and what I am.