Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free. Yes, they must believe, they must believe. Because I know what it means to be a slave. I am a slave.

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 suppose I started writing seriously at 16 years old. I thought I wrote a novel at 16 and sent it to New York! They sent it back because it wasn't novel.

The sharecropper may lower his eyes, but not because he's less of a man. That's just a condition of society that such things exist.

Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?

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

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.