I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life.

Every new fashion is a form of rebellion.

I didn't run into racism until we moved to Nassau when I was ten and a half, but it was vastly different from the kind of horrendous oppression that black people in Miami were under when I moved there at 15. I found Florida an antihuman place.

Far as I can tell, I still have most of my hair, my gut is not hanging over my belt, and I still have all of my teeth.

Okay listen, you think I'm so inconsequential? Then try this on for size. All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value - to you I say, I'm not talking about being AS GOOD as you. I hereby declare myself BETTER than you.

I don't very often read novels.

I think the way I want to think. I live the way I want to live.