"The media, in many cases, twisted themselves in pretzels not to say that was a racist remark. It was."

"In some ways, the pandemic has underlined how we are all writers now..."

"Every text that I love is problematic."

"'Recommendations' always come from God and they're always positive, versus a 'suggestion,' which is always coming from the devil and is always a form of temptation and will lead you to your doom..."

"They tell the truth long before the truth filters up to the more culturally elite products of the period."

"They may be talking abstract, but it always seems to be racism that they want to hear."

"We're all putting on some kind of costume, no matter what."

"If you don’t want to let somebody go, you can always say that the way they expressed remorse was ‘inauthentic’ or that you didn’t believe them that they were remorseful."

"There's something about him--and his life and his work--that I think still contributes to a modern dialogue in a way that other writers just don't."

“That sense that we have been venerating the wrong heroes...entrepreneurs rather than hospital workers and people who work in care homes... has become flipped on its head.”