There would be no Rock and Roll without Ike Turner, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, etc. Fake ghetto books and fake ghetto music. Elvis Presley, whom they idol, is merely a karaoke makeover of James Brown and Chuck Berry.

What was once dormant is now a Creeping Thing

I was roommates with 2 of the guys who were influential in forming the Black Arts philosophy. I called them "goons," and [Amiri] Baraka took offense at that. But if you read his autobiography, the night we went up there for a fundraiser, he talks about how he wished that some violence would happen to us. How do you like Baraka as a gracious host?

American cultural institutions seem so bent on preserving the values of "Western civilization," the mythical "Whitetown," that welearn about one another's cultures the same way we learn about sex: in the streets.

Unfortunately, in the world today, we have dogmatic people entering into politics. I don't think the two mix.

Writing has made me a better man. It has put me in contact with those fleeting moments which prove the existence.

Ethnic life in the United States has become a sort of contest like baseball in which the blacks are always the Chicago Cubs.