If I had only a negative side of things to present, I think I would have much less of a drive to do it. Because what would be the point?

We're dreamers and - since we only have one life, and if we screw up we can get in a world of trouble - we're very intense dreamers.

There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally.

I'm still vulnerable and still weak.

I'm very hard-nosed and cold-blooded and I can walk past a drowning man. If I have someplace else to go, well, tough s**t. I could do that. I can. Have. Sometimes, not because I was callous but had to do it.

That split is inside all Americans. There are contradictions inside all of us about color and race. We've learned to cover them up and live with them and pretend that deep cleavage is not there. We all bear that illness.

Even in my adult years, when I heard a white person speaking in a Southern accent I was initially suspicious.