Suddenly in high school, I'm in a predominantly Jewish atmosphere. Jewish people were my gate to white America.

I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators "the haute couture of language."

I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment.

I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.

Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again.

I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.

I remember from my father's funeral that the minister kept using a metaphor about life of a prism. And I took that away like a cherished image.