You Don't Know Nothing

I tell my students; I tell everybody this. When I begin a creative writing class I say, “I know you've heard all your life, ‘Write what you know.’ Well I am here to tell you, You don't know nothing. So do not write what you know. Think up something else. Write about a young Mexican woman working in a restaurant and can't speak English. Or write about a famous mistress in Paris who's down on her luck.”

TONI MORRISON