John Edgar Wideman: When it's played the way is supposed to be played,...

I'm still divided in my principles and what I think is right and what I'm actually able to do, whether talking about writing or being a citizen or being a husband or being a father. And I'm trying to get better.

John Edgar Wideman

husband writing father

I believe - what did Faulkner say? "The past is not even past."

John Edgar Wideman

i-believe believe past

I don't tell everything. I want the reader to have the feeling that maybe they know the whole truth, but they don't.

John Edgar Wideman

reader want feelings

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

horrible race goes-on

Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable.

John Edgar Wideman

uncontrollable book

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

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

would-be negative thinking

Everything is up for grabs, everything is relative. Except nothing is if you are serious about it because the moment you become serious about answering a question you have a stake in it. Relatively goes out of the window, in one sense because you're putting your a** out there - you are depending on the answer, you need the answer.

John Edgar Wideman

serious moments window

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

pain brother son

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

tough men past

I really dislike when people talk about "experimental," because any good writer is experimental. As a writer, you don't know what the hell you're doing. You're just doing it. You hope it works out well. I've been experimenting with these things myself in my own books.

John Edgar Wideman

work-out book people

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 people thinking

I'm still vulnerable and still weak.

John Edgar Wideman

vulnerable stills weak

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

John Edgar Wideman

want giving way

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

John Edgar Wideman

good-writers dislike people

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 writing book

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

feelings kids people

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

John Edgar Wideman

southern white years

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

african-american survivor men

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

elements giving father

When it's played the way is supposed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, elevated above the floor, levitating the way oppressed peoples of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams.