I think a lot of the history we've read up to this point, some of it is just off. It's written with the same prejudice that certain networks have when they report the news of the day.

The black church will accept anybody.

Be kind to the living.

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'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.

Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.

It's the same old story. Nothing in this world happens unless white folks says it happens. And therein lies the problem of being a professional black storyteller - writer, musician, filmmaker.