I'm a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black,...an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.

I wanted to write a novel that would make others feel the history: the pain and fear that black people have had to live through in order to endure.

I'm trying to speak--to write-the truth. I"m trying to be clear. I'm not interested in being fancy, or even original. Clarity and truth will be plenty, if I can only achieve them.

Science fiction let me do both. It let me look into science and stick my nose in everywhere.

In my years, I have seen that people must be their own gods and make their own good fortune. The bad will come or not come anyway.

But my problem with fantasy, and horror, and related genres, is that sometimes the problems are illogical.

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.