Quotes by Colson Whitehead

About Colson Whitehead:

Colson Whitehead is a New York-based novelist. He is the author of the 1999 novel The Intuitionist, as well as four other novels and one book of non-fiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

You swallow hard when you discover that the old coffee shop is now a chain pharmacy, that the place where you first kissed so-and-so is now a discount electronics retailer, that where you bought this very jacket is now rubble behind a blue plywood fe...

Colson Whitehead

There will be no redemption because the men who run this place do not want redemption. They want to be as near to hell as they can.

Colson Whitehead

It is failure that guides evolution; perfection provides no incentive for improvement, and nothing is perfect.

Colson Whitehead

As time went on, we learned to arm ourselves in our different ways. Some of us with real guns, some of us with more ephemeral weapons, an idea or improbable plan or some sort of formulation about how best to move through the world. An idea that will ...

Colson Whitehead

The only time "early bloomer" has ever been applied to me is vis-a-vis my premature apprehension of the deep dread-of-existence thing. In all other cases, I plod and tromp along. My knuckles? Well dragged.

Colson Whitehead

Two people, two hands, and two songs, in this case "Big Shot" and "Bette Davis Eyes." The lyrics of the two songs provided no commentary, honest or ironic, on the proceedings. They were merely there and always underfoot, the insistent gray muck that ...

Colson Whitehead

Whoever has the better stuff wins. Sound familiar, American lackeys of late-stage capitalism?

Colson Whitehead

Here's a tip for new parents: Start lowering those expectations early, it's going to pay off later.

Colson Whitehead

There was one moment of intersection, when the topic of hate-watching came up. "Why do you watch TV shows--and keep watching them--if you don't like them?" Terrence asked. Simple: Some days, all you have is gazing upon horror, and the small comfort o...

Colson Whitehead

They don't give gold bracelets for regrets.

Colson Whitehead

I'd never been much of an athlete, due to a physical condition I'd had since birth (unathleticism). Perhaps if there were a sport centered around lying on your couch in a neurotic stupor all day, I'd take an interest.

Colson Whitehead

Weeks passed, but my Word-A-Day Calendar was stuck on "motherfucker.

Colson Whitehead

As it often did when I thought about chicken wings and entropy, my mind turned to Emerson. "Life is a journey, not a destination." Now that was one stone-cold motherfucker who was not afraid to deliver the truth: After the torments of the journey, yo...

Colson Whitehead

Mark Spitz didn't ask about Harry. You never asked about the characters that disappeared from a Last Night story. You knew the answer. The plague had a knack for narrative closure.

Colson Whitehead

Mark Spitz had met plenty of the divine-retribution folks over the months. This was their moment; they were umbrella salesmen standing outside a subway entrance in a downpour. The human race deserved the plague, we brought it on ourselves for poisoni...

Colson Whitehead

Nowdays, Rosie the Rivetere was a former soccer mom who had just opened her own catering business when Last Night came down and her husband and kids were eaten by a parking attendant at the local megamall’s discount- appliance emporium.

Colson Whitehead

Pain could be killed. Sadness could not, but the drugs did shut its mouth for a time.

Colson Whitehead

A society manufactures the heroes it requires.

Colson Whitehead

They jostled one another, competed for space below as they did above, in a minuet of ruin and triumph. In the subway, down in the dark, no citizen was more significant or more decrepit than another. All were smeared into a common average of existence...

Colson Whitehead

We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them.

Colson Whitehead

Author Bio

  • NameColson Whitehead
  • Descriptionnovelist
  • Born1969
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist
  • WorksThe Intuitionist; John Henry Days
  • AwardsMacArthur Fellows Program