I look at my books the way parents look at their children. The fact that one becomes more successful than the others doesn't make me love the less successful one any less.

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 am really quite proud of most of the people I " know who have "made it," who do things to help people.

I acknowledge immense debt to the griots [tribal poets] of Africa - where today it is rightly said that when a griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground.

If you need to know history, the real story of those before you, then you should go to the library and read newspaper clippings of someone like Muhammad Ali every day, then it might giver you some understanding of the man.

I think one of the most fascinating things you can do after you learn about your own people is to study something about the history and culture of other people.

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