Quotes by John Edgar Wideman

John Edgar Wideman

A great artist transforms our world, removes scales from our eyes, plugs from our ears, gloves from our fingertips and teaches us to perceive reality differently.

Artist

Eye

Reality

As a reader, I do not like to have everything handed to me. Because after a while it gets formulaic and I’m thinking, “If this is so thought through, then why do I need to read it. It’s done!” It becomes a beach book at a certain point.

Beach

Book

Thinking

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?

Book

People

Thinking

Do not fall asleep in your enemy’s dream.

Dream

Enemy

Fall

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

Southern

White

Years

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.

Moments

Serious

Window

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.

Apples

Awful

Sin

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

Feelings

Reader

Want

I don’t write books because I have answers. I write books because I have questions. What we are is the questions that we ask, not the answers that we provide. It’s all about the process of self-examination. I think that’s what the best writing always contains.

Book

Thinking

Writing

I get off on anticipating and waiting much more than I get off on the actual event.

Events

Waiting

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

African American

Always Trying

Apples

Art

Artist

Awful

Beach

Being Human

Book

Brother

Children

Color

Different

Dislike

Distance

Dream

Elements

Enemy

Events

Eye

Fall

Father

Feelings

Fighting

Games

Giving

Good Writers

Important

Kids

Language

Lessons

Men

Might

Moments

Negative

Pain

Past

People

Pessimistic

Powerful

Progress

Race

Reader

Reality

Serious

Sin

Son

Southern

Splits

Stars

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by John Edgar Wideman

John Edgar Wideman

A great artist transforms our world, removes scales from our eyes, plugs from our ears, gloves from our fingertips and teaches us to perceive reality differently.

As a reader, I do not like to have everything handed to me. Because after a while it gets formulaic and I’m thinking, “If this is so thought through, then why do I need to read it. It’s done!” It becomes a beach book at a certain point.

Do not fall asleep in your enemy’s dream.

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

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.

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

I don’t write books because I have answers. I write books because I have questions. What we are is the questions that we ask, not the answers that we provide. It’s all about the process of self-examination. I think that’s what the best writing always contains.

I get off on anticipating and waiting much more than I get off on the actual event.

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Topics by John Edgar Wideman

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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