How Do People Come Up With A

The Sharecropper May Lower His Eyes, But Not Because He's Less Of A Man. That's Just A Condition Of Society That Such Things Exist.

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

Anytime A Child Is Born, The Old People Look In His Face And Ask Him If He's The One.

"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."