I write what I want to write, and then, when it’s finished, I use my judgment to see whether or not I think it’s intrusive. If it is problematic, then I ask those involved. I won’t necessarily do what they say. But I do consult. I haven’t had too many problems. Nobody’s really gotten angry at me. Nobody, as far as I know, has felt betrayed. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
When I’m doing the brute work, I do it early in the morning; that’s the best time for me to get the stuff down on the page. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
All my life, I’ve been very aware of my body. I have always used it as a gauge of things. When I look at a person, and I see their body, that’s the beginning of knowledge about them. Furthermore, I respect the body. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
I call people by their initials when they’re good buddies, and that’s a kinda street thing, too – ‘Here comes JF,’ or, ‘Here comes KC.’ It’s fun; it’s intimate. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
For a young person, anybody who’s sorting out and trying to make a life for himself or herself, to have the opportunity each day to set down – sit down and then set down thoughts, words – it’s a crucial, crucial way of staying alive, of not allowing yourself and not allowing the culture outside yourself to totally dominate your life. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
A great artist transforms our world, removes scales from our eyes, plugs from our ears, gloves from our fingertips, teaches us to perceive reality differently. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
A lot of people think the best work I’ve done was nonfiction – the ‘Brothers and Keepers’ book. But I think of myself as a fiction writer. And I think, if my work is put in perspective, all the books would be a continual questioning of what’s true and what’s not true, what’s documented and what’s not documented. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
Real change is always violent, but it may hurt a lot less than what’s in place before the violence occurs. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
Writing ‘Hoop Roots’ was a substitute or a surrogate activity. I can’t play anymore – my body won’t cooperate – so in the writing of the book, I was looking to tell a good story about my life and about basketball, but I was also looking to entertain myself the way that I entertain myself when I play. John Edgar Wideman Read Quote
