“To get the minimum sense of diversity and variety – that’s a big challenge” says Ralph Ellison in the beginning of his interview over his written works (0:26 to 0:31). This quote seems like a great way to start off this interview as it shows what Ellison tries to accomplish throughout his novels making it an important part of the interview. He continues on with describing what he believes the job of a writer and thus what he tries to make his books about by explaining that “power seems to [him] lies in [the author’s] ability to reveal only a little bit more about the complexity of humanity”(4:04 to 4:14). Ellison’s books, about racial bias and the different attitudes within different subcultures in race display these ideas. By explaining why he believes these ideas are important to writers, Ellison brings more meaning to his work and explains it more aptly to some of his other readers.

Another quote I found interesting from him was when he explained that “anytime [his] face appears there are a lot of people who are going to be interpreting [his] face [his] statements in terms of [his] racial identity rather than the quality of what [he has] to say” (3:41 to 3:55). This quote shows his reasoning behind staying away from interviews and the spotlight. He doesn’t wish to deteriorate the works value by allowing people to think of it as a black man’s work he wants people to take it’s meaning to heart by thinking of it as a fellow man’s work making this quote all the more impactful.

Video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgC0zZ30kh8