You learn from music, from watching great athletes at work - how disciplined they are, how they move. You learn these things by watching a shortstop at work, how he concentrates on one thing at a time. You learn from classic music, from the blues and jazz, from bluegrass. From all this, you learn how to sustain a great line without bringing in unnecessary words.

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.

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

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

Now, about that mulatto teacher and me. There was no love there for each other. There was not even respect. We were enemies if anything. He hated me, and I knew it, and he knew I knew it. I didn't like him, but I needed him, needed him to tell me something that none of the others could or would.

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

Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One.