< Previous page

"I don't want to be put into a box. I wanted to be able to show that I'm a writer. People like to put in different adjectives to describe me as a writer: an African-American author, a gay author and what have you. And I think to sustain my career, which has been wonderful so far, I've got to be able to do that.

"I also wanted to give people who are uncomfortable reading about the subject matter that I write about, who really like a good author, a chance to give me a chance," he says.

It's not like his success has been terribly hindered. There are 4 million copies of his books in print, and his last nine books were instant New York Times best-sellers.

Yet though readers love Harris' work, he says his real goal in writing was to free himself.

"When I started my career I was just trying to save myself. In terms of finding something that would sustain me and finding something I really wanted to do. I loved James Baldwin coming up, Maya Angelou and Truman Capote ... I loved to read, it was my greatest joy."

His favorite book growing up, was "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Angelou's groundbreaking memoir. "For some reason, I don't know if it was the Arkansas connection, I connected with that story. ... I went through some tough times. I could relate to that child even though I wasn't female, I hadn't been raped or molested, I still related to longing. Maybe, while I wasn't admitting it to myself then, I secretly I wanted to be a writer because there was so much stuff left unsaid about my childhood that I wanted to say about being different. I think writing was the only way of doing that."

Still, Harris knows he's no James Baldwin. He thinks of himself, instead, as a chronicler of the times.

"I definitely consider myself a commercial writer ... I write popular fiction. I don't try to fool myself and to think that I'm in a class with Baldwin or Toni Morrison or any of those people that write literary novels. I think I write popular fiction."

"I write about what's going on now. What's going on in our lives now? At some point, some people may want to know what was it like living in the year of 2008. I would have chronicled that time, if you will."

< Previous page

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.