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Quote by Paul Beatty

“In The Sellout I tried to capture how we can talk and see race, how we see urbanity, and how we see our history.”

Quote by Paul Beatty

Author

Paul Beatty, born in 1962 in Los Angeles, California, is an accomplished American author known for his unique humor and satirical style. His works often delve into issues of race, class, and social inequality, carrying profound social significance and literary value. more

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“It's just never the same. At least for me.It's probably because it's just who I am, I never know what that [truth] is. It's so momentary to go, "Oh, yeah, that's true." That's a fundamental starting point for me - to figure out what's true from moment to moment to moment.”

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“I read an interview with a Japanese freestyle jazz musician once, and he said something like, "Everything I'm going to tell you is not going to be true." He's not saying, "I'm trying to lie to you." But he's kind of saying that you can never say what something really is.”

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“It's so hard to say what you really mean. For any number of reasons: to protect yourself, or if you just can't find the words.”

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“It's all the same for me, how I teach, how I write, how I think.”

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“Well, it's not all the same, but there are a lot of parallels. I'm not sure how to answer [on psychology background], but I think when I was studying psychology I had a professor and a friend who would talk about "process" all the time. Your process, his process, the group's process. There's some carryover from that discussion to my creative work.”

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“I co-taught a seminar called Small Group Processes with my professor. I learned so much from it, so much about myself, about groups, how this stuff works. I bring all that stuff to teaching now.”

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“There are things I don't like, like sitting at the head of the class. It makes me uncomfortable. I'll do it in a seminar if I have to, but with a workshop, I try to put myself in the circle somewhere. Because that hopefully frees up some people by making somebody else sit at the nominal head of the table.”

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“I think, and a lot of that has to do with where I grew up in California; [status] isn't something I think about that much.”

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“The other thing [my psychology professor] said to me was that I was always very mindful of the person who was away from the group, that I was always trying to bring them in.”

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“It makes me think about how you hear these young people say, "I see you, man." Or even if you go and watch some basketball game over the summer and the announcer goes, "I see you," and you see that player smile. You know what I mean? That thing of just being recognized, especially when you do a little subtle thing. I don't know.”

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