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

I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense.

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.

...my heart may have been in it but my soul was not.

There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.

How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?