My family is my career.

Slavery was a web of relationships, and if people knew how thick the whole business was, they would not make fun of people like Harriet Tubman. They would understand how intelligent she was and how sharp.

First person narrative is a very effective tool but you have to know as a writer how to make it work.

My black friends never asked me how much money I made, or what school my children went to, or anything like that. They just said, "Come as you are."

What humor allows you to do is to let the past go with less pain. It's a healing element. It releases some of the pain from the shotgun wound.

I grew up in the church, and so I feel that God gave me certain things to do, and I'm lucky enough to kind of have figured those things out. I just don't want to die not having tried to help somebody else with what I know.

I'd like to do something involving jazz. But books are how I earn my living, and I'd like to stay with the horse I rode in on.