If you have the material it will form itself as a kind of connective tissue.

I come to the understanding that maybe what was on the inside was more important, and that your outer covering didn't count so much as folks thought it did, colored or white, man or woman.

If you have the material it will form itself as a kind of connective tissue.

My family is my career.

But what difference does it make? ... When you're mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.

I can write anywhere really. I have a hard time writing when the birds are tweeting and the brooks are running outside. I've tried that several times, for months at a time, trying to write in a quiet, wonderful place where birds are twittering and coffee's brewing. And nothing happens. But if I'm in an old dump like my old apartment and I can't find my fingernail clippers and nothing's working except the old tea maker, that's just great. You always have to find and live in a place that's a little uncomfortable when you're a writer. You need a burr in your side.

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.