A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they're better than anyone else on earth - and that's a myth.

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

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

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.

Without love for my fellow man and respect for nature, to me, life is an obscenity.

The artist must be like a heart surgeon. He must approach something with sympathy, but with a sort of coldness and work and work until he finds some kind of perfection in his work. You can't have blood splashing all over the place. Things must be done very cleanly.