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

I had a deep prejudice against the South. It's taken me many years to get over that, be more open and thoughtful.

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

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.

Our thoughts, our language, are always at a distance from whatever they're trying to describe. 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. That's the beauty and the terror of being human beings: We just have these symbolic languages, these dreams, and that's all it ever is. There is no American or Frenchhistory. There are all these dreams that are floating around. People construct them and fight with them and criticize them, and the world goes on. I don't think the stars pay much attention.

I'm not a fearful person, but I'm a pretty pessimistic person. So some of my best times are waiting, anticipating. That's the way it always has been with me, whether anticipating a ball game, anticipating a relationship.

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.