We are all losers in comparison to Malala Yousafzai. But we are not all geniuses. Like me.

It meant something to see people who looked like me in comic books. It was this beautiful place that I felt pop culture should look like.

I feel like my job is to look at the world and to report what I see, to write what I see as honestly and directly as I can. I don't want to cut it or make it easy, but be as direct as I can.

It's hard for me to view Baltimore outside the context of what Baltimore has always been in my mind: a violent place.

I enjoy the challenge of trying to say things beautifully. The message is secondary in that sense. Obviously, I have something that I want to say that's very, very important to me - but the process of actually crafting it is essential.

I think at places like 'Slate' or the magazine where I work, there was a really poor record of hiring African-American writers. It was really that simple. And I think with the proliferation of the Internet and Internet media, it has been a little harder to maintain that gatekeeper position.