sula is a flesh out person on the page. all of these characters. there is a resistance to what can sometimes happen in "a black fiction," which is that the characters become caricatures. to aare sort of flattened being that is entirely seen and understood through the prism of race, as opposed to a being entirely seen and understood through the prism of their humanity, which is gigantic and broad and capacious. that is what toni morrison does. if there is a great lesson that i have learned from her, it is probably that. tavis: how do you go about writing a book like this that is usable, that is embraceable? does that make sense? >> it does. the same things -- i really deeply believe in the primacy of character. i believe my job as a writer to put a believable human being on a page. as much as writers are certainly concerned with things like themes and tropes and all these things that are sort of happening beneath the text, it seemed to me that first and foremost my job was not to do tricks are sure that i'm smart but to simply write these characters