I Wanted To Write A Novel That

Beware At War Or At Peace, More People Die Of Unenlightened Self-interest Than Of Any Other Disease

In Order To Rise From Its Own Ashes A Phoenix First Must Burn.

I Have This Theory That Anything That Happens To You That Leaves You Alive And Intact Can Be Used Somewhere In Your Writing.

I Wasn't Trying To Work Out My Own Ancestry. I Was Trying To Get People To Feel Slavery. I Was Trying To Get Across The Kind Of Emotional And Psychological Stones That Slavery Threw At People.

I Think People Really Need To Think What It's Like To Have All Of Society Arrayed Against You.