Beth Macy

“So many white people don't want to talk about race; it's uncomfortable. Many reason that slavery happened more than a century ago, and people alive today had nothing to do with it. But the particulars of these stories, from slavery to segregation to civil rights and mass incarceration, are at the marrow of life in America today.”

“You need time to build relationships with subjects to win their trust.”

“It's amazing what you can find out if you just call an expert, you know?”

“My dad was a house painter. He was often unemployed by the time I came along.”

“I'm a unicorn in the world of journalism; I've stayed in the same mid-sized city, and that staying has allowed me to write two deeply-reported books.”

“Photographers do more assignments than reporters do, so they know their communities better.”

“What I always do is go with the stories that put up the hair on the back of my neck or make me cry or make me laugh.”

“My parents were really poor. We never bought books because you could go to the library. It would be stupid to buy one.”

“You just keep shining a light and hoping people will start to pay attention.”

“My dad dropped out of school in middle school, but he reads five or six books a week, and my mom reads about two.”

“My husband and I like to listen to books on road trips.”

“I think of Harriet Muse as one fierce lady. She couldn't read. She had no education. She did labor her whole life. And she stood up to Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey at a time where she was told where to work, where to sit, and she demanded that they pay attention to her.”

“My favorite novel ever is Abraham Verghese's 'Cutting for Stone.' It takes you so many places. I stayed up to 4 in the morning to finish it.”

“If you have a choice between buying something in Vietnam or China or buying something made in Virginia, why not buy it from people in Virginia? A lot of times, it's not much more expensive or may even be less.”

“From 1840 to 1940, the circus was the biggest form of entertainment in the country. People were starting to have money, starting to have half a Saturday off. In an era before people went on vacations much, the big deal was when the circus came through town.”

“We need more leadership at every level: federal, state, and local.”

“I grew up in a factory town - Urbana, Ohio.”

“The heart of 'Truevine' is about the travails of two strong black women who agitate to get justice for their family.”