Blacks have traditionally had to operate in a situation where whites have set themselves up as the custodians of the black experience.

If you want to support a writer, produce the first five plays he writes.

I ain't never found no place for me to fit. Seem like all I do is start over. It ain't nothing to find no starting place in the world. You just start from where you find yourself.

What do you do with your legacy, and how do you best put it to use?

The blues are important primarily because they contain the cultural expression and the cultural response to blacks in America and to the situation that they find themselves in. And contained in the blues is a philosophical system at work. And as part of the oral tradition, this is a way of passing along information.

You are responsible for the world that you live in.

There's no idea in the world that is not contained by black life. I could write forever about the black experience in America.