But perhaps more important, as someone wishing to make a comment or two about contemporary life and values, I don't have to dig through libraries or travel to exotic lands to arrive at a view of our modern situation refracted through the lens of the preindustrial world, or the uncommercialized, unfranchised, perhaps unsanitized-and therefore supposedly more "authentic"-perspective ofthe Third World. Very simply, this is because that "other" world, as alien as if separated by centuries in time, is the one from which I came

I have always been a learner because I knew nothing.

A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.

I defend myself by improving myself.

I couldn't adjust to the racism in Florida. It was so blatant... I had never been so described as Florida described me.

I don't very often read novels.

So I had to be careful. I recognized the responsibility that, whether I liked it or not, I had to accept whatever the obligation was. That was to behave in a manner, to carry myself in such a professional way, as if there ever is a reflection, it's a positive one.