When you're at the basketball court watching a game, one person may be talking about a fight he had with his wife, another is talking about the last hard-on he got, someone else is talking about the presidential election. The language and the tone and the voice - I'd love to be able to capture that spontaneity.

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

As a writer, you don't know what the hell you're doing. You're just doing it. You hope it works out well.

To be a survivor as an African American man - maybe any man - you have to be pretty tough. Or at least that's what we all understand.

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.

Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable. That's one of the beauties of African American life. There was this thing called slavery and adjustments were made. It literally destroyed millions, but it didn't destroy the inner lives of all the people who experienced it. There are still horrible things that go on because of the myth of race, but we don't have to succumb totally. 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?