John Edgar Wideman Quotes - Page 2

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• Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. That's one of the beauties of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it. There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally. If I had only a negative side of things to present, I think I would have much less of a drive to do it. Because what would be the point?

  John Edgar Wideman

  Book, Thinking, People

  4 Copy quote

• As a reader, I do not like to have everything handed to me. Because after a while it gets formulaic and I'm thinking, "If this is so thought through, then why do I need to read it. It's done!" It becomes a beach book at a certain point.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Beach, Book, Thinking

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  7 Copy quote

• My grandfather had asked me many times whether I'd like to come to South Carolina with him. He wanted to introduce me to our people down there and I didn't want to go. In those days, the South was still a place where black kids were lynched. Something horrible could happen to you. I've had that feeling my whole life.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Kids, People, Feelings

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'm not a fearful person, but I'm a pretty pessimistic person. So some of my best times are waiting, anticipating. That's the way it always has been with me, whether anticipating a ball game, anticipating a relationship.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Games, Waiting, Pessimistic

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  7 Copy quote

• I can't pretend that I did one really awful thing - I took a bite out of the apple but now I'm never going to sin again.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Apples, Awful, Sin

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• I really love James Joyce, Dubliners and other work. And I was interested in the way the dash was used in English topography - in his work particularly - and I realized there was no compulsion to use those ugly dot-dot curlicues all over the place to designate dialogue. I began to look around, and found writers who could make transitions quite clear by the language itself. I'm a bit of a maverick now. I'm always trying to push the medium.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Always Trying, Topography, Transition

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Race, Goes On, Horrible

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'm very hard-nosed and cold-blooded and I can walk past a drowning man. If I have someplace else to go, well, tough s**t. I could do that. I can. Have. Sometimes, not because I was callous but had to do it.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Past, Men, Tough

  Source: classic.esquire.com

  4 Copy quote

• The hardship, the pain, the suffering of my brother and my son in prison, that's absolutely their experience, that's not mine. I don't get any credit for enduring that. I never give myself any credit for enduring that.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Brother, Pain, Son

  Source: classic.esquire.com

  4 Copy quote

• If I had only a negative side of things to present, I think I would have much less of a drive to do it. Because what would be the point?

  John Edgar Wideman

  Thinking, Negative, Would Be

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'm still vulnerable and still weak.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Vulnerable, Weak, Stills

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• Even in my adult years, when I heard a white person speaking in a Southern accent I was initially suspicious.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Years, White, Southern

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• To be a survivor as an African American man - maybe any man - you have to be pretty tough. Or at least that's what we all understand.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Men, African American, Survivor

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• My father combined many of the elements that were feared in the culture, but also he was a warm figure, a figure we needed. We depended on him to give us a little bit of strength and courage.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Father, Giving, Elements

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• My mother loved my father. From my view, she let him get away with too much. It broke my heart to see him in an old people's home and stop being strong and lose his voice.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Mother, Strong, Father

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• When you're at the basketball court watching a game, one person may be talking about a fight he had with his wife, another is talking about the last hard-on he got, someone else is talking about the presidential election. The language and the tone and the voice - I'd love to be able to capture that spontaneity.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Basketball, Fighting, Talking

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• I get off on anticipating and waiting much more than I get off on the actual event.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Waiting, Events

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• Our thoughts, our language, are always at a distance from whatever they're trying to describe. We have other kinds of languages, like mathematics, like music, like art, but there's always that gap.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Art, Distance, Trying

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• We're dreamers and - since we only have one life, and if we screw up we can get in a world of trouble - we're very intense dreamers.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Dreamer, Screw Ups, World

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• There is no American history. There is no French history. There is no John Wideman. There are all these dreams that are floating around. People construct them and fight with them and criticize them, and the world goes on. I don't think the stars pay much attention.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Dream, Stars, Fighting

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• I want to give the evidence in a way that is convincing, but I don't want to cheat.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Giving, Want, Way

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• Things seem to fall apart inevitably.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Fall, Falling Apart, Seems

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• I really dislike it when people talk about "experimental," because any good writer is experimental.

  John Edgar Wideman

  People, Good Writers, Dislike

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

• Hell, I'm going to play pro basketball. I'm going to maybe be famous. I'm going to write books.

  John Edgar Wideman

  Basketball, Book, Writing

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  4 Copy quote

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