I'd Like To Do Something Involving Jazz.

If You're Going To Cheat And Take People's History And You're Not Writing The Bible, You Ain't Really So Great. But If You Try To Do It In A Way That Doesn't Hurt Too Many People, Then You Probably Can Get Out Of Bed In The Morning And Look At Yourself In The Mirror.

You're Not A Black Man. You're A Human Being In God's Eyes. So When You Sit Down To Talk To Someone And You Talk To Them In Really Intelligent Terms, You Ask Difficult Questions, There's A Militancy That's Assigned To You Without You Asking For It, Because You Are Simply Judged By What You Look Like. If You're A White Person Asking The Same Questions, You'd Be One Of These Cnn Guys And Say How Brilliant He Is. That Doesn't Work For You, Because This Is The World We Live In.

God Is The Color Of Water. Water Doesn't Have A Color.

The Black Church Will Accept Anybody.

The Basic Thing Is To Be Humble, And Pretend You're A Bartender In The Tavern Of Life. Don't Get Too Comfortable And Don't Really Listen To Anybody Else. Don't Stand Around With A Bunch Of Writers And Talk About Writing. You Know When You See Plumbers At A Plumbers Convention, Usually They're Not Talking About Plumbing: They're Talking About Whatever It Is That Two Men Happen To Talk About. They're Talking About Sports, Their Wives And Children. I Just Tell My Students, Don't Talk About Writing Too Much, Just Go Out And Do It. Find Out Whatever You Need To Get To The Mainland.