277 Quotes by Jesmyn Ward

With all the main characters that I write, it's always very important to me that they have good and bad aspects of their personality. It's important to me that they're complicated and that they're human.

I don't really base any of my characters on specific people that I know, although my characters are informed by the kind of people who live in my community.

As a reader, sometimes, I just want to not think. You know, I want to read something that is purely enjoyable: that is, like, escapist.

As an artist, I feel a certain responsibility to write about difficult subject matter.

One of the most important things that I want for my kids is I want them to live. You know, I want them to live to see 21 and beyond.

When I was a teenager, I was the only black girl at a small, private Episcopal school, where my tuition was paid by the family my mother worked for. It was hard being the only one, and I faced a fair amount of racist and classist bullying there.

In the past, I travelled with 'The Hero and the Crown' by Robin McKinley: I suffer from a fear of flying, and I felt a bit safer knowing I carried the book and characters with me.