It doesn't matter if your lead character is good or bad. He just has to be interesting, and he has to be good at what he does.
When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization - any kind of civilization - disappears.
I want my grandchildren to look like my grandparents. I don't want them to look like Anwar Sadat or Foo Man Chu or Whoopi Goldberg.
To be sure, the story of Hurricane Katrina does have a moral for anyone not deliberately blind. The races are different. Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western Civilization-any kind of civilization-disappears.
Most whites do not have a racial identity, but they would do well to understand what race means for others. They should also ponder the consequences of being the only group for whom such an identity is forbidden and who are permitted no aspirations as a group.
In my experience—and I admit I didn't anticipate this—most blacks are delighted to have a 100-percent honest conversation with a white man about race.
A year ago, you wanted to give up because we were losing, and now, you want to give up because we're winning.
Death is not goodbye.
My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here.
Poets are the leaven in the lump of civilization.