Cord Jefferson

“When I was a journalist... toward the end of my career, it had started to feel like there was this revolving door of misery that I was expected to write about.”

“To be very good at football, you need to be able to snuff out the voice inside of you that says it's better for everyone if you do not hurtle your body at great speeds into another person's body.”

“Bravery is a virtue people revere in dead soldiers and then turn to disparage in someone extending her hand to a weirdo.”

“I like Barbour jackets a lot, and Tod's driving moccasins. I even like 'Nantucket red' pants with a crisp white shirt and a blue blazer. But, as a person of color with no family crest of which to speak, I wonder if I should.”

“For several years, I made my unofficial beat the stories, struggles, and politics of blacks in America. I wrote about other things, also, but never with the same frequency or interest. I was pretty good at it, and, more than that, I enjoyed it.”

“To be raised as a man of color in America - especially a black man, and particularly a very dark black man - is to eventually learn that much about you is threatening to the general public.”

“Some things are beautiful exactly because they're simple.”

“My father was a public defender when he first started his law career.”

“I've had people pass on stuff that I do a lot - the nature of this business is rejection.”

“There is an appetite for things that are different and a story with Black characters that's going to appeal to a lot of people.”

“I think that happiness has been elusive for me my entire life.”

“I feel very drawn to characters who hide themselves and take great pains to disguise themselves from the world.”

“When beginning any career, it's important to highlight the experiences and skills you bring to the table that others can't.”

“I feel both happy and sad in my life... Life is neither comedy nor tragedy. And so I just wanted to work on things that felt like life.”

“Therapy should be free in America.”

“Yeah, I just started taking - I took my first dose of Zoloft on my 40th birthday. It was my 40th birthday gift to myself.”

“There's nothing worse than trying to be mad at somebody and just having them laugh at you.”

“We seem to reserve a special rage in this world for those whose ability to be unafraid in pursuit of something new extends beyond our own.”

“The prevalence of the GVP (grilled vegetable plate) as the sole vegetarian option at many restaurants is offensive for a whole host of reasons. Besides being only marginally nutritious and woefully reliant on salt, GVPs are also limp, flavorless testaments to the lack of imagination of most chefs.”

“Drilling gaping holes into the crust of the earth with fallible equipment in order to summon forth millions of gallons of hydrocarbons is difficult and extraordinarily precarious.”