Rest Easy And Go With The Faith

All Of The Philosophers I Studied Were White (with A Few Eastern Exceptions), And, For That Matter, They Were All Male. Africa, The Cradle Of Civilization, Seemed To Have No Footing In The Highest Form Of Human Thought.

... You Should Wait Until The Book Is Finished Before Making A Judgment On Its Content. By The Time You Have Gone Through Twenty Drafts, The Characters May Have Developed Lives Of Their Own, Completely Separate From The People You Based Them On In The Beginning. And Even If Someone, At Some Time, Gets Upset With Your Words - So What? Live Your Life, Sing Your Song. Anyone Who Loves You Will Want You To Have That.

I Always Tell People, If A Young Girl Read "beloved" As Her First Novel, She'd Have To Kill Either Herself Or Her Mother, Because In "beloved" You Have A Mother Killing Their Children. This Is Not Something A Child Would Accept Very Easily. And Would Never Understand.

I Believe That A Writer Has To Tell What They Think Is The Truth In A Human Experience. The Truth Of The Human Experience Cannot Escape The Political.

My Father Always Taught By Telling Stories About His Experiences. His Lessons Were About Morality And Art And What Insects And Birds And Human Beings Had In Common. He Told Me What It Meant To Be A Man And To Be A Black Man. He Taught Me About Love And Responsibility, About Beauty, And How To Make Gumbo.