I would put books on par with chocolate, because a good book is delicious.

History is wonderful. We have so much we can learn if we would quit making ideology out of history, and just deal with what happened.

A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and take advantage of it.

The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said "A civilization is judged only in its decline." That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.

It's not a ladder we're climbing, it's literature we're producing. . . . We cannot possibly leave it to history as a discipline nor to sociology nor science nor economics to tell the story of our people.

We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.

Nothing improves your writing, I think, as much as your keeping writing.