I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

The sharecropper may lower his eyes, but not because he's less of a man. That's just a condition of society that such things exist.

I have no more to say except this: We must live with our own conscience.

I think I'm a very religious person. I think I believe in God as much as any man does. I don't only believe in God, I know there's God.

He told us that most of us would die violently, and those who did not would be brought down to the level of beasts.

What I miss today more than anything else - I don't go to church as much anymore - but that old-time religion, that old singing, that old praying which I love so much. That is the great strength of my being, of my writing.

I try to write something that would interest anybody and keep them turning the page. You must have a plot and good storyline.