[The World Series] introduced me for the first time to a team with a lot of black players. Detroit had about three of them: I think it was Willie Horton, Gates Brown, and Earl Wilson - might have been one or two more in '68.

The writer's gift can make us see ourselves and our morals differently than our reality suggests.

I grew up in the church and began to recite set pieces at the age of four and five, like many of the other kids.

The heartbeat of your originality is deep within a body of thought that continually wrestles with the contradictions and limitations that we're constantly trying to overcome, the curiosities and the ignorances of the people we seek to help.

Hip hop music is important precisely because it sheds light on contemporary politics, history, and race. At its best, hip hop gives voice to marginal black youth we are not used to hearing from on such topics.

I grew up on the West Side - the "near West Side," [in Detroit], as they say - in what would be considered now the inner city.

I believe in a God of a second chance and a God of love and mercy, because I need so much more of it myself.