Stephen King is walking back a comment he made on Twitter about diversity in the arts.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, the horror author addressed the controversy over a Jan. 14 tweet in which he said, “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.”
In the op-ed, King attempted to clarify what he meant by the comment, which was spurred by discussion over the demographic makeup of this year’s Academy Award nominations. As in many previous years, people of color were largely shut out from award consideration, and the Best Director nominees were all men.
“I also said, in essence, that those judging creative excellence should be blind to questions of race, gender or sexual orientation,” King wrote. “I did not say that was the case today, because nothing could be further from the truth. Nor did I say that films, novels, plays and music focusing on diversity and/or inequality cannot be works of creative genius. They can be, and often are.”
King noted that he has written about “strong female characters” in his books, and defended the casting of actor Idris Elba, who is black, in a film adaptation of his The Dark Tower.
He also said that he hoped future Academy Awards would be more diverse.
“We don’t live in [a] perfect world, and this year’s less-than-diverse Academy Awards nominations once more prove it,” he wrote. “Maybe someday we will. I can dream, can’t I? After all, I make stuff up for a living.”
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
