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“The first time I read As I Lay Dying, I was so awed I wanted to give up. I thought, "He's done it, perfectly. Why the hell am I trying?" But the failures of some of his black characters - the lack of imaginative vision regarding them, the way they don't display the full range of human emotion, how they fail to live fully on the page - work against that awe and goad me to write.” — Jesmyn Ward
The first time I read As I Lay Dying, I was so awed I wanted to give up. I thought, "He's done it, perfectly. Why the hell am I trying?" But the failures of some of his black characters - the lack of imaginative vision regarding them, the way they don't display the full range of human emotion, how they fail to live fully on the page - work against that awe and goad me to write.