Independence is a heady draught, and if you drink it in your youth, it can have the same effect on the brain as young wine does. It does not matter that its taste is not always appealing. It is addictive and with each drink you want more.

Food served is always more than just food served. That is to say, it is more than just fuel for the body. Depending upon who has prepared the food and who has served it and with what spirit, it can uplift the - and around the world, in every culture, food is used to flirt, to be coy, a raise in the employment or to search for employment. It can bring warring factions together.

If I'm going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don't just go bumbling over things.

In today's climate in our country, which is sickened with the pollution of pollution, threatened with the prominence of AIDS, riddled with burgeoning racism, rife with growing huddles of the homeless, we need art and we need art in all forms. We need all methods of art to be present, everywhere present, and all the time present.

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.

It is imperative that young white men and women study the black American history. It is imperative that blacks and whites study the Asian American history.

Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.