Stories Are The One Sure Way I

Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure, And One Of Them Is The Way You Can Both Hate And Love Something You Are Not Sure You Understand.

I Was Born In 1949, And By The Time I Was 10, I Figured Out That My Hope Chest Was Not Aimed In The Same Direction Everybody Else's Was. And That Life Was Going To Be Very, Very Complicated. And That I Could Either Be Provocative And Declamatory, Or Shy, Retiring And Scared.

Two Or Three Things I Know, Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure, And One Of Them Is That To Go On Living I Have To Tell Stories, That Stories Are The One Sure Way I Know To Touch The Heart And Change The World

I Need You To Do More Than Survive. As Writers, As Revolutionaries, Tell The Truth, Your Truth In Your Own Way. Do Not Buy Into Their System Of Censorship, Imagining That If You Drop This Character Or Hide That Emotion, You Can Slide Through Their Blockades. Do Not Eat Your Heart Out In The Hope Of Pleasing Them.

Writing Is The Only Way I Know To Demand Justice From An Uncaring Universe.