Stuttering is painful. In Sunday school, I'd try to read my lessons, and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter.

More and more, when I single out the person out who inspired me most, I go back to my grandfather.

If you live in an oppressive society, you've got to be resilient. You can't let each little thing crush you. You have take every encounter and make yourself larger, rather than allow yourself to be diminished by it.

So in my junior year, I switched to the drama department.

Reading was a big thing, yes. Books were a big thing. But the things that stick out were the newspapers.

Once you begin to explain or excuse all events on racial grounds, you begin to indulge in the perilous mythology of race.

I don't ever want to be a sentimentalist. I prefer to be a realist. I'm not a romantic really.