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

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

I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about.

I write with as much objectivity as I can.

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 was raised by a lady that was crippled all her life but she did everything for me and she raised me. She washed our clothes, cooked our food, she did everything for us. I don't think I ever heard her complain a day in her life. She taught me responsibility towards my brother and sisters and the community.

The mark of fear is not easily removed.