It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.

America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain.

The world is a possibility if only you'll discover it.

I'm not a separatist. The imagination is integrative. That's how you make the new -- by putting something else with what you've got. And I'm unashamedly an American integrationist.

By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication.

I feel the need to reaffirm all of it, the whole unhappy territory and all the things loved and unloveable in it, for it is all part of me.

Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.