Some things in this world just ain't meant to be, not in the times we want 'em to, and the heart has to hold it in this world as a remembrance, a pro….

Music and writing do fold together in the sense that you have to have a certain level of skill in order to execute your ideas and you need a medium. ….

You know what needs to be done when you're a writer. You know what the job is, particularly if you're an African American writer, or if you deal with….

I think comedy allows people to accept the more difficult parts of history. And history, if it's presented wrong, is just very depressing, particular….

My family is my career..

I wish all critics, no matter their color, were more sophisticated when it comes to the moral questions a film like 'St. Anna' is trying to raise..

I could have been, and may one day well be a high school English teacher, because I've been given so much I just feel like I have to give something b….

When you're interviewing someone, even your mother - you have to sort of deal with you have to get some objective space from yourself and the person ….

I just read history books. I read nothing but history books. They have so much to give; I wish I'd majored in history in college..

I put headlights in Ford vans. I still drive a Ford..

I'd like to do something involving jazz. But books are how I earn my living, and I'd like to stay with the horse I rode in on..

First person narrative is a very effective tool but you have to know as a writer how to make it work..

As a journalist, I never critiqued anyone. I never review books. I've never felt qualified as a musician to say whether someone is a good musician or….

Family is the last and greatest discovery. It is our last miracle..

I'm proud of 'Miracle at St. Anna' and I loved it; there's no question in my mind it's as good as any movie that came out in 2007..

It's a real stumper to sit around and try to think in your own head, but when you go into somebody else's head that takes the foot off the breaks. Yo….

Until you expose the cancer, you can't fix it..

I think a lot of the history we've read up to this point, some of it is just off. It's written with the same prejudice that certain networks have whe….

I come to the understanding that maybe what was on the inside was more important, and that your outer covering didn't count so much as folks thought ….

If you have the material it will form itself as a kind of connective tissue..

What humor allows you to do is to let the past go with less pain. It's a healing element. It releases some of the pain from the shotgun wound..