MARLON JAMES

There was never a single murder in my neighbourhood; there was barely a robbery. It was so suburban, it was almost disappointing.

I'd spent seven years in an all-boys school: 2,000 adolescents in the same khaki uniforms striking hunting poses, stalking lunchrooms, classrooms, changing rooms, looking for boys who didn't fit in.

We shouldn't romanticize rejection. There's nothing romantic about rejection. It's horrible.

As a writer of colour, you have to be victim or perpetrator.

At 28 years old, seven years out of college, I was so convinced that my voice outed me as a fag that I had stopped speaking to people I didn't know.

Because homophobia is still largely driven by the church, it's legitimised. It's also tied to sexism, because those two are never far apart.

Caribbean literature only has to be true to itself. It doesn't need colonialism or imperialism. It's always been vibrant.

I think the Greeks were the only people ever to nail character. Their heroes are deeply flawed.

I wanted a picture of Jamaica that isn't in books, and certainly not in novels.

I was the nerd. Because I was reading. I wasn't into sports. I was really into art. Very geekish about comics. Assumed gay.

I'm not a writer on a mission, and I'm very suspicious of writers on missions, but I'm also not living a false life.

I'm really interested in how non-American countries process race.

If your depiction of loss doesn't make the reader feel loss, then you didn't depict it right.

In creative writing, I teach that characters arise out of our need for them.

Pretty much everything I've written is a mix of excitement and fear.

Some of the craziest aspects about 'Weeper' were the things I found out to be true. I mean, true of people.

The fiction writer in me likes gaps in stories because I can jump into that gap and try to suggest something.

We're not big on irony in Jamaica, sarcasm and double-talk. We tend to say things plainly, sometimes to the point of boredom.

What I find, particularly with young writers and readers, is that they don't want complicated feelings.

A lot of time, I'd spell things in standard English instead of phonetically because I want people to understand what's going on. It's also very lyrical, and the great thing about lyrical prose is even when you're not totally sure of the words, you can be swayed by the musicality of it.

I always tell my students to complicate your characters: never make it easy for the reader. Nobody is ever one thing. That's what makes characters compelling.

I come from a very big family from every economic background. Some of the streets I talk about, I've actually walked on because I have family from there. Jamaica has so many contradictions.

I find the violence in PG13 movies unbearable. This kid will never run home, never have another birthday. His death is slow, nightmarish. And you have to explore the consequences - the people who live on with this death.

I grew up with reggae. Reggae is like family. I know it, and there's a type of love and familiarity, but sometimes you want to hang out with other people.

I think, for me, there's The Book I Should Write and The Book I Wanted to Write - and they weren't the same book. The Book I Should Write should be realistic, since I studied English Lit. It should be cultural. It should reflect where I am today. The Book I Wanted to Write would probably include flying women, magic, and all of that.