I love 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X.' That was like the only black book we read in high school.

I mean, I'm an artist by nature; no one considers what I do and no one knows who the heck I am, but that anybody does - it is astonishing.

I read a book a week, man. And I don't have a great memory, but I have a good memory about what I read.

I seem to enjoy telling stories with a central absence, with a lacuna tunnelled into them.

I seem to have to make my characters family before I can access their hearts in any way that matters.

I sleep way too much and I read tremendously.

I think one of the paradoxes of writing fiction is when people enjoy it, they want it to be real. So they look for connections.

I was neither black enough for the black kids or Dominican enough for the Dominican kids. I didn't have a safe category.

I was, as a kid, really obsessed with reading... that was about as geeky as you could possibly get.

I write very, very slowly, and for me, I have to summon all sorts of resources to make one of these pieces work.

I'm a product of a fragmented world.

I'm an immigrant and I will stay an immigrant forever.

I'm just this Dominican kid from New Jersey.

I'm not writing fairy tales or object lessons.

I'm of African descent and my sister looks completely black, but I didn't look black. I was the super-nerdy kid who was also willing to fight.

I'm sure I'm one of those undiagnosed people with social anxiety.

Infidelity raises profound questions about intimacy.

It took me sixteen years to write.

It's extraordinary how many people read a book that's new and weird and befriend it.

Just the fact that you get to live and breathe and interact with the world - that's pretty marvelous.