I Think Black Intellectuals See Too Deeply.

The Last Publicized Center Of American Writing Was Manhattan. Its Writers Became Known As The New York Intellectuals. With Important Connections To Publishing, And Universities, With Access To The Major Book Reviews, They Were Able To Pose As The Vanguard Of American Culture When They Were So Obsessed With The Two Joes--mccarthy And Stalin--that They Were To Produce Only Two Artists, Saul Bellow And Philip Roth, Who Left Town.

The Cultural Wars Of The Sixties Are Over. I've Reconciled With Those Who Were My Critics And Opponents Years Ago. I Was At Odds With Some Those Who Were Black Nationalists. Yet When Feminists Attempted To End My Career And Leave Me As Literary Road Kill, It Was The Black Nationalists Who Came To My Rescue.

I Don't Know Why People Always Compare Me [ With Amiri Baraka] I Was Never Part Of The Black Arts Repertory Theater Or The Black Arts Movement; People Who Claim That I Was Are Wrong. I Was Downtown. I Was Living In Chelsea When They Were Operating In Harlem.

I'm Not Against White Writers Writing About Blacks As Long As They Are As Objective As Say James Mcpherson Writing About An Irish American Janitor In His Brilliant Short Story "gold Coast."

My Work Holds Up The Mirror To Hypocrisy, Which Puts Me In A Tradition Of American Writing That Reaches Back To Nathaniel Hawthorne.