When I'm Sitting In The Church Alone,

I Have Learned As Much About Writing About My People By Listening To Blues And Jazz And Spirituals As I Have By Reading Novels.

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 Have No More To Say Except This: We Must Live With Our Own Conscience.

He Told Us That Most Of Us Would Die Violently, And Those Who Did Not Would Be Brought Down To The Level Of Beasts.

What I Miss Today More Than Anything Else - I Don't Go To Church As Much Anymore - But That Old-time Religion, That Old Singing, That Old Praying Which I Love So Much. That Is The Great Strength Of My Being, Of My Writing.