My books are not about how it feels to be a black man. My books are about how it feels to be a human being, and part of what I’m trying to sort out is what we mean – what I mean, what you mean, what everybody in the culture means – when they say ‘black man,’ or they say ‘white person.’ John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
The title of my book is ‘American Histories,’ plural. And as far as I’m concerned, my reading of history is it is a sort of nightmare. It is a sort of nightmare, and I’m trying to wake up from it. And as any nightmare, it’s full of much that is unspeakable. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
I assume the risk of allowing my fiction to enter other people’s true stories. And to be fair, I let other people’s stories trespass the truth of mine. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
That’s been my routine for years and years… Up early before everybody else, before I get connected, before I get bugged, before I have obligations. Get the writing done first, then be the person I want to be in other ways after that. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
Too much is made for us; too much is given to us – even those of us who are underprivileged. The poverty is given to us. The difficulties are given to us. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
My father was intelligent and closed-mouthed. He knew a lot more than what he was ever going to tell you. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
Basketball can give us a kind of mystical awareness. Everything seems focused and in balance. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
I try to cope by doing what I do, what I find purpose and joy in. For me, that has been writing and playing ball. It doesn’t make the pain go away, but what else can I do? John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
How do you talk about the Holocaust? How do you talk about slavery? Probably the best thing to do is just be quiet and hide from it, forget about it. Except, then it jumps up and bites you. Because it’s there. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
I always liked to write and had fun writing, but I didn’t have any pretensions about being a writer. I liked to read and liked to putz around and write little stories or poems, but my thing was sports. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
