Everything's Been Said, But It Needs Saying

The Mark Of Fear Is Not Easily Removed.

I Have Learned As Much About Writing About My People By Listening To Blues And Jazz And Spirituals As I Have From Reading Novels. The Understatements In The Tenor Saxophone Of Lester Young, The Crystal, Haunting, Forever Searching Sounds Of John Coltrane, And The Softness And Violence Of Count Basie's Big Band - All Have Fired My Imagination As Much As Anything In Literature.

I Was Raised By A Lady That Was Crippled All Her Life But She Did Everything For Me And She Raised Me. She Washed Our Clothes, Cooked Our Food, She Did Everything For Us. I Don't Think I Ever Heard Her Complain A Day In Her Life. She Taught Me Responsibility Towards My Brother And Sisters And The Community.

Without Love For My Fellow Man And Respect For Nature, To Me, Life Is An Obscenity.

I Had To See And Feel And Be With The Thing That I Wanted To Write About.