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.

Nietzsche said without music, life would be a mistake. To me, without books, life would be a mistake.

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have from reading novels. The understatements in the tenor saxophone of Lester Young, the crystal, haunting, forever searching sounds of John Coltrane, and the softness and violence of Count Basie's big band - all have fired my imagination as much as anything in literature.

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

We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave?

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