Mat Johnson Professions : Writer Born : August 19, 1970 Browse All Authors Top 14 quotes by Mat Johnson It is a great moment in every freak's life when he or she finds out that at least they are not the only one. Mat Johnson great-moments freak moments Even drunk, I knew any escape plan that involved going to Detroit, Michigan, was a harbinger of doom. Mat Johnson detroit michigan drunk I start with fear. It comes in so many forms. When I write, some of the fear goes away. So I write into the fear, and even more dissipates. I want to be scared while writing. I want to bring it to the surface so I can banish it. Mat Johnson scared want writing People aren't social. They're tribal. Race doesn't exist, but tribes are real. Mat Johnson real race people The sociopaths - that's the real problem. The whole street demeanor is about pretending to be a sociopath as well so that the real ones can't find you. Mat Johnson sociopath problem real For some reason, people always assign high cheekbones to some ethnicity, but apparently by their regards, everybody on earth has high cheekbones. So I don't know if that matters. Mat Johnson ethnicity earth people Everybody just gets on my nerves after like, 10 minutes, you know. Mat Johnson nerves minutes knows I love the idea of biracial. I actually don't use the word biracial. I tend to use mixed. Biracial to me accentuates the word race, and, you know, I don't really care for it. Mat Johnson race use ideas I look white to a lot of people. And I'm not. I'm African-American. I'm mixed. I like to call myself Mulatto because that definition fits. So, you know, I've dealt with the conflict my whole life between how I look and my actual ethnic and racial identity. Mat Johnson african-american white people I'm really suspicious of anybody who comes in and says, this is your identity now, or this is your belief system, and now that you have this, everything's going to be great. Mat Johnson belief-systems belief identity My weak suit is whatever each reader hates about each book. Mat Johnson suits hate book My strong suit is that I've been willing to risk on the page to get somewhere interesting. Mat Johnson risk strong interesting I've been writing forever, 20 years. Mat Johnson forever writing years Long-haul trucking. Just roaming the country, alone, with audiobooks and podcasts, sleeping in the back of the cab, showering at gas stations at 4 a.m., minimal human contact. That's living the dream. Mat Johnson dream sleep country Similar Authors Ihab Hassan writer Ingmar Bergman writer Isabella Bird writer Ivan E. Coyote writer Al Feldstein writer Bert Sugar writer All Authors
