I don't want anyone to walk through the world feeling invisible ever again.

I feel like, as a person of color, I've always been kind of doing the work against the tide.

In writing 'Another Brooklyn,' I had to imagine what happens when friendships dissolve.

I love playing with form. I love playing with sounds... I love music, and I love writing that has a musicality to it.

I wrote all the time, and I had teachers who encouraged it.

The writing that I have found to be most false is the writing that doesn't offer hope.

What I learned for myself... is that no matter what the circumstances, people survive.

When I write, I don't think about messages for my readers.

My grandparents were wealthy; my mom was not. I would walk into these worlds of privilege and then walk back into this other world. My little brother is biracial. So race and economic class and sexuality - these were always issues that were a part of my life.

My sister taught me how to write my name when I was about three. I remember writing my whole name: Jacqueline Amanda Woodson. I just loved the power of that, of being able to put a letter on the page and that letter meaning something.