Writing For Me Is Cutting Out The

First Person Narrative Is A Very Effective Tool But You Have To Know As A Writer How To Make It Work.

I Grew Up In The Church, And So I Feel That God Gave Me Certain Things To Do, And I'm Lucky Enough To Kind Of Have Figured Those Things Out. I Just Don't Want To Die Not Having Tried To Help Somebody Else With What I Know.

The Man Was The Finest Preacher. He Could Make A Frog Stand Up Straight And Get Happy With Jesus.

As A Journalist, I Never Critiqued Anyone. I Never Review Books. I've Never Felt Qualified As A Musician To Say Whether Someone Is A Good Musician Or A Bad Musician. What Happens With Black Writers And Black Artists Is That If You're Critiqued, For Example, By A Black Historian Who Wants To Get His Name On The Cover Of "the New York Times," And He Says Something, Like, Wacky, Well, He'll Get His Name On The Cover Of "the New York Times" And He Might Get Tenure, And Your Career Suffers.

I'd Like To Do Something Involving Jazz. But Books Are How I Earn My Living, And I'd Like To Stay With The Horse I Rode In On.