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

Categorized in : People White African American

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.

great-moments freak moments

Even drunk, I knew any escape plan that involved going to Detroit, Michigan, was a harbinger of doom.

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.

scared want writing

People aren't social. They're tribal. Race doesn't exist, but tri... by Mat Johnson

People aren't social. They're tribal. Race doesn't exist, but tribes are real.

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.

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.

ethnicity earth people

Everybody just gets on my nerves after like, 10 minutes, you know... by Mat Johnson

Everybody just gets on my nerves after like, 10 minutes, you know.

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.

race use ideas

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.

belief-systems belief identity

My weak suit is whatever each reader hates about each book. by Mat Johnson

My weak suit is whatever each reader hates about each book.

suits hate book

My strong suit is that I've been willing to risk on the page to g... by Mat Johnson

My strong suit is that I've been willing to risk on the page to get somewhere interesting.

risk strong interesting

I've been writing forever, 20 years. by Mat Johnson

I've been writing forever, 20 years.

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.

dream sleep country