Race is not something inherent to one's being: One does feel more or less colored, depending on the situation.

The public schools in our neighborhood were so bad that the teachers in the school said you shouldn't send your kids here. My mother called around and found a school that was willing to give both me and my brother scholarship money. It's a classic story about black parents wanting more for their kids than they had for themselves.

Rather than say art is art and life is life, I like to say that they're joined and inextricable.

Glenn Ligon Quotes