There was a great deal of inbreeding between the Indians and the slaves. Genetically speaking, black people are some part black, some part European.

The main thing you got to remember is that everything in the world is a hustle.

Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.

My fondest hope is that 'Roots' may start black, white, brown, red, yellow people digging back for their own roots. Man, that would make me feel 90 feet tall.

I tell younger writers that indeed it is devastating to be rejected. You feel like the bottom dropped out of your world.

You're always being judged. No matter what you do, it's not the right thing. If you didn't become successful, then you'd be pointed at as one of those creatures down their who didn't take advantage of this or that, who didn't climb and rise and so forth.

I travel a lot. It used to be, when I would go to any country, I could guarantee that the first question would establish my name, and the fact that I've written Roots, and the third question, at least no later than the fourth question would not be a question, so much as a statement, something like, "We understand that in America white people do such and such bad things to black people."