I can't think of a subject that is taboo for me, unless it's one I simply don't know anything about.

There is no Jesus without Judas, no Martin Luther King, Jr., without the Klan; no Ali without Joe Frazier; no freedom without tyranny. No wisdom exists that does not include perspective. Relativity is the greatest gift.

Censors can make a case for zero tolerance in language. They can make the argument that since we don't allow our children to use that language in schools, we also shouldn't give them stories in which it is used.

You have to be mad in the language you're mad in.

...racist thought and action says far more about the person they come from than the person they are directed at.

I think the value in books like mine, and a great number by other talented writers, is in the ability to bring dark subjects into the open where they are not so dark, where they can be talked about and considered by teens and adults alike.

My first book, 'Running Loose', was censored back in 1983 or '84. Every book I've written since has been censored somewhere.