He Told Us That Most Of Us

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.

Everything's Been Said, But It Needs Saying Again.

You've Got To Bend With The Wind Or You're Broken.

We Looked At Each Other, And I Could See In Those Big Reddened Eyes That He Was Not Going To Scream. He Was Full Of Anger - And Who Could Blame Him? - But He Was No Fool. He Needed Me, And He Wanted Me Here, If Only To Insult Me.

"what For?" I Said. "what For, Tante Lou? He Treated Me The Same Way He Treated Her. He Wants Me To Feel Guilty, Just As He Wants Her To Feel Guilty. Well, I'm Not Feeling Guilty, Tante Lou. I Didn't Put Him There. I Do Everything I Know How To Do To Keep People Like Him From Going There. He's Not Going To Make Me Feel Guilty."