Colson Whitehead

Most of my books have always worked through juxtaposition, jumping through different point of views and time. ”

For me, the terror of the zombie is that at any moment, your friend, your family, you neighbor, your teacher, the guy at the bodega down the street, can be revealed as the monster they've always been. ”

Slavery was a violent, brutal, immoral system, and in accurately depicting how it worked, you have to include that, obviously. Or else you are lying. ”

Once I got to college, it seemed that the Hamptons were a little bit too posh for me and didn't represent the kind of values I was embracing in my late teens. So, I didn't go out there, except to visit my parents, for a long time. And then, after 9/11, I discovered it was a nice, mellow place to hang out. ”

I take inspiration from books, movies, television, music - it all goes in the hopper. Depending on the project, I'm drawing from this or that piece of art that has stayed with me. Toni Morrison, George Romero, Sonic Youth - they are all in there. ”

You can't rush inspiration. ”

Some people don't like my fiction, because they prefer the nonfiction. But moving around keeps the work fresh for me and, hopefully, for my one or two readers who follow me from book to book! ”

I always try to mix it up with each book - changing tone, changing style keeps the work very vital for me. ”

Zone One' comes out of me trying to work through some of my ideas about why, for me personally, zombies are scary. ”

There are good writers and bad writers. It's hard to find writers who really speak to you, but the work is out there. ”